Planting a Fall Salad Garden

I'm planting a salad tonight. It's perfect weather to start a fall salad garden. Lettuce and greens hate the hot weather of summer and most gardeners know that spring and fall are the best times to try and grow lettuce greens. With the right timing and method you can have fall salads right into November.

A container makes the ideal place to plant a fall salad garden. You can choose any size, but just make sure it will hold at least 12 inches of soil. I usually plant several early fall salad gardens in various size pots. I mix and match the greens, even add some radishes and green onions.

Preparing your container for a fall salad garden

Choose a pot at least 12 inches deep. Make sure there are drainage holes and then add some loose rocks or stones in the bottom, about an inch deep. Mix up a soil planting mixture of 3 parts compost or potting soil, 1 part sphagnum peat moss and one part perlite to aid in water retention. Add some 5-10-5 fertilizer and triple superphosphate, about ¼ oz per gallon of soil in your salad garden pot.

What plants work well in a fall salad garden

Arugula or Roquette is a peppery salad green that is not only popular with the trendy crowds but really does taste great on sandwiches, in salads or with pasta. Most salad greens, including Arugula, need to be sowed thinly and then covered very lightly, just enough to hold the seed in place. In just a few days, you'll have Arugula sprouting and in 12 to 15 days you can start cutting and eating it.

Crumpled Watercress is an old fashioned Victorian green that adds great flavor to salad garden mixes. You have probably heard of it in watercress sandwiches, and it does hold up well in sandwiches. Stuff a pita with watercress and add some tuna for a cool crunchy lunch.

Mache is also called lamb's lettuce or corn salad. It has tender, glossy rosettes with a mild flavor and sweetness. It's a good complement in salad mixes to your tangier, sharper greens like mustard, or arugula. Mache is excellent tossed in at the last minute in stir frys and stews.

Mustard greens offer an almost tangy hot taste to your salad but many people just love them cooked. They mellow in flavor with the heat and pair well with hearty meats in the fall.

Mesclun is a salad mix that you can buy prepackaged. It's just several varieties of lettuces in one seed packet. I usually plant my mesclun blend in a pot by itself and then just keep picking and cutting through the fall. I will start one pot of mesclun about 2 weeks after the first to have successive picking.

Then there is the leaf lettuces and the romaines; those typical lettuces that people associate with salads. There are many varieties to plant with Black Seeded Simpson being a traditional and favorite green leaf lettuce. Lollo Rossa is my favorite red looseleaf with dnd Rubens is a baby variety of red romaine that does well in salad garden containers.

And finally add some Butterhead lettucs like Boston, Bibb or Buttercrunch. These curvy little heads of lettuce mature in around 3 weeks also and are a delicious addition to any salad garden.

I also plant radishes and onions to complete my fall salad garden. French radish blend Flamvil, is a mild tasting favorite of our family. Slather a piece of fresh baked white bread or French bread with cold creamery butter and slice young French radishes on it for a delicious radish sandwich. Your grandparents probably ate their radishes much the same way.

That's it, a fall salad garden can be yours with just a couple of hours of work.

I'm off to plant mine right now!