[maxie]

What do you grow for a salad,mine seems to revolve around lettuce,rocket,coriander,radish and spring onion.
Im not too keen on tomatoes or peppers,ive tried lambs lettuce,mustard,mizuna and wasnt too impressed.
I usually just grow little gem and all the year round lettuce so was looking for a few different ideas.

[JayG]

Bit early for most of us to be adding tomatoes and cucumber to the list (I hope!  ), but I've been spicing up the slightly bland lettuce leaves with home-grown watercress (rooted sprigs from supermarket watercress grown in a well-watered tub in a shady spot.) Grows like the clappers until the first frosts but don't let it flower (will carry on later still if you move it into a greenhouse.)

I love olives in a salad too, although of course someone else grew them and put them in a jar for me!

[Beetroot queen]

Hubby would laugh at my reply as i am boring so my salad consists of nothing more than lettuce, beetroot and cress. Maybe some gratted carrot at a push.

His would contain everything and i mean everything

[mumofstig]

Lettuce, but a mix of colours and soft and crunchy, rocket, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers (these last 3 won't be long now  ) red salad onions,  pea tops, shredded cabbage and carrots (not just for coleslaw) blanched and sliced French beans.
Later on (I hope) grated celeriac , kohl rabbi, radicchio and Sugarloaf endive.


I'll have to try the watercress thing Jay

[Springlands]

Bit early for most of us to be adding tomatoes and cucumber to the list (I hope!  ), but I've been spicing up the slightly bland lettuce leaves with home-grown watercress (rooted sprigs from supermarket watercress grown in a well-watered tub in a shady spot.) Grows like the clappers until the first frosts but don't let it flower (will carry on later still if you move it into a greenhouse.)

I love olives in a salad too, although of course someone else grew them and put them in a jar for me!

No tomatoes yet JayG but I am getting some lovely cukes. Two at least today with lots more to come.

[New shoot]

I'll have to try the watercress thing Jay

I've picked the decent sized sprigs out of a mixed salad bag this lunchtime to try it as well   

[Growster...]

Not much from The Patches, just lettuce leaves, rocket, spuds, cucumber, courgettes in a marinade and a handful of peas.

Otherwise it's additional sweet peppers, artichoke hearts, tiny onions, olives and garlic pieces from a deli in the village, cold baked beans (not Mrs G, I'm the coarse one), home-made rocket pesto, spring onions, and toms!

[pigguns]

Nasturtiums!! leaves and the flowers already this year  mixed in with pea tops and the usual other stuff, loads of Italian flat leaf parsley as well.  Hoping for my first home grown toms this year with this sites help!

[Madame Cholet]

At the moment

radish seed pods
broad beans
pea shoots

leaves of
oca
sorrel
ice plant
campanula leaves and flowers
nastursiums
red salad bowl lettuce
purple orach
fat hen
viola
salad burnett
lemon balm
chives
Good King Henry
begonia sempreflorens
salsola
edible plantain

[maxie]

At the moment

radish seed pods
broad beans
pea shoots

leaves of
oca
sorrel
ice plant
campanula leaves and flowers
nastursiums
red salad bowl lettuce
purple orach
fat hen
viola
salad burnett
lemon balm
chives
Good King Henry
begonia sempreflorens
salsola
edible plantain

Ive never tried fat hen but my chickens make a beeline for it when i throw the weeds in.

[JayG]

I'll have to try the watercress thing Jay

I've picked the decent sized sprigs out of a mixed salad bag this lunchtime to try it as well 

The only difficult part is actually believing that something that is normally grown under water can do so well grown in compost - root the sprigs in a glass of water (3-4 days) and plant out into a decent sized container so they can creep across the surface (they produce new roots and shoots at each leaf joint so you don't want them just flopping over the edge as you might do with other cuttings.)

Shady spot, plenty of water, occasional high nitrogen feed (eg Miracle Grow) and don't forget to pinch out any flower heads. The bonus is that it tastes even more peppery than the original sprigs, probably because they were originally grown as fast as possible with the bare minimum of nutrients.

A variation on this has the container standing in a bowl of water to keep it wet, the water being changed frequently, but that didn't work for me (the whole lot went green and stagnant.)

If you like water cress it's almost something for nothing (I used spent MP compost with a bit of dried chicken poo mixed in for nitrogen.) 

[Jonajo]

Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers to go with the salads but imdo a lot of growing leaves for green salad.

So as well as doing full lettuces (and have now got the knack of successional sowing to avoid gluts) i tend to do several pots using my own mixture of the following seeds in varying proportions to get a more interesting "cut and grow mix" than the often rather bland ready mixes..

Wild rocket
Coriander
Peas (for pea shoots as part of the salad)
Beetroot for their lovely leaves
Fat lazy blonde
Reine de glace
Radicchio
Leeks ( the leek seedlings are MARVELLOUS as part of the salad. Little bursts of strong flavour....)


And a few pots for just wild rocket.

[Totty]

Lettuce, cucumber, pepper, red onion, mint, tiny peas, pea shoots, beetroot, carrot, broad bean flowers are nice too.
The tiny little potatoes you find while harvesting can be steamed together, then add a few to salads too.

Totty

[tosca100]

It's too hot to be starting lettuce here, I've tried but they just shrivel after a short time in the sun. Radish were a dead loss too, and ground cress. Next year, when I have more space we will cover with net or fleece.

But we have abundant very juicy tomatoes (some the size of tea plates) masses of cues and peppers, onions and herbs, so salad every day. All planted by lovely neighbours but our's to enjoy. Olives are cheap to buy here, especially if you buy in bulk. The dry packed black olives freeze well in batches and add a bit of oomph.

[Beetroot queen]

It's too hot to be starting lettuce here, I've tried but they just shrivel after a short time in the sun. Radish were a dead loss too, and ground cress. Next year, when I have more space we will cover with net or fleece.

But we have abundant very juicy tomatoes (some the size of tea plates) masses of cues and peppers, onions and herbs, so salad every day. All planted by lovely neighbours but our's to enjoy. Olives are cheap to buy here, especially if you buy in bulk. The dry packed black olives freeze well in batches and add a bit of oomph.

Tosca would lettuce do ok under a tree for you.
I have really enjoyed lettuce this year.