Growing a salad garden

Growing a salad garden

Growing a salad garden is one of the best ways to introduce yourself or your children to the joys of vegetable gardening. It’s quite easy to do, and it’s tasty too!

One of the most popular ways to grow a salad garden is in containers. The small containers tend to fit easily into a kitchen or dining room window, and this is handy particularly if you don’t have much (or any) yard space to plant the vegetables in.

Salad vegetables tend to grow quickly too, and this is part of what makes them so fun. You or your children can check the pots daily or weekly, and you’ll see noticible growth and changes each time.

When planting a salad garden you can of course just limit yourself to the basics: Lettuce and Tomatoes. It’s more enjoyable though, to explore your new gardening experience by trying out a variety of salad greens. This also gives you variety with your eating too, which many people don’t often have.

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Garden Tip...

Perhaps the best soil for general potting purposes, and the kind most extensively used by florists, is a mixture of equal parts of decayed sods, and well-rotted stable manure, and occasionally, especially if the sod is clayey, a little sand is added.
~ James Sheehan
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So when you plant your lettuce for instance, try planting more than just one kind. Some people don’t seem to know for instance, that there are many more kinds of lettuce than just the standard head of iceburg you’ll find at any grocery store. Some lettuce varieties are quite leafy, and some are also colorful too. And they all have differences in taste that can enhance and change the tastes of your salads.

The same variety rules apply to tomatoes. If you have the space, try planting more than one kind so you’ll have different things to try. The large beefsteak style tomatoes can be used in your salads if you cut them up first, and they’re wonderful as a hamburger topping when you’re barbecuing too. Small grape or cherry tomatoes are excellent as both salad ingredients and individual snacks alone too though, so try to plant some if you’re able.

Carrots and Celery are other items you should try to add to your salad garden. You don’t need a whole lot of space for these vegetables either, because even the carrots can be found in miniature sizes. Baby carrots for instance, are quite small. And there is a thumbelina variety of carrots which grows to about the same size and shape as a cherry tomato does.

Don’t forget to try other types of salad greens too, such as cabbage and spinach. Also consider growing a small batch of both brocolli and cauliflower, because these make wonderful additions to any salad plus they’re excellent for vegetable dipping snack plates too.
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Garden Tip...

A smooth lawn is a great attraction of itself, even if there is not a tree or shrub upon it. When it is once made, a lawn is easily kept in order, yet we seldom see a good one. There are three things to be taken into consideration in securing a fine lawn. First, location; Second, quality of the soil; Third, the kinds of seed to be sown.
~ James Sheehan
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