Charles Dowding - Salad leaves for all seasons: Organic Growing from Pot to Plot

1. 
   
2. Chapter 1 High Yields, Small Spaces, Special Methods
   Learning new tricks
3. Chapter 2 Vital Knowledge for Successful Harvests
   Less sowing, more picking
4. Chapter 3 Sowing, Planting and Harvesting Through the Year
   An experiment with salad beds
5. Chapter 4 Small Spaces and Micro Leaves
   Growing in confined areas and picking baby leaves
6. Chapter 5 Leaf Flavours
   An amazing palette to choose from
7. Chapter 6 Sowing, Raising, Sustaining
   Healthy plants, indoors and outside
8. Chapter 7 Cosmic Leaves
   Bringing new energy to soil, plants and ourselves
9. Chapter 8 The Unwanted
   Coping with slugs and other pests
10. Chapter 9 Leafing Through the Seasons
    Changing ingredients through the year
11. Chapter 10 Recipes for All Seasons
    Leafy meals month by month
12. Chapter 11 Lettuce
    Clean, plentiful leaves
13. Chapter 12 Endives and Chicories
    A remarkable range of beautiful leaves
14. Chapter 13 Leaves of the Cabbage Family
    Oriental leaves, kales, rockets and others
15. Chapter 14 Spinach, Chard and Beet
    Many colours, strong flavours
16. Chapter 15 Exotic Tastes and Colours
    Small amounts of large flavours
17. Chapter 16 Herbs and Flowers
    More exciting flavours and colours
18. Chapter 17 Outdoor Winter Salads
    Difficult but precious
19. Chapter 18 Indoor Propagation
    Earlier growth, stronger plants, more harvests
20. Chapter 19 Salad Leaves Through the Winter
    Growing indoors

S ince starting vegetable growing in 1981, I have become more and more fascinated by salad. Lettuce was one of the first crops in 1983, from my newly created acre and a half of raised beds in the old farm orchard. In May and June of that year I sold many dozens of butterhead lettuce hearts, some in the village, where a surprised neighbour commented that there was enough flavour for her not to need any mayonnaise!

That set me wondering; where had the flavour gone in other lettuce? All I had done was to grow them in honest soil to organic standards. Over the next few years, lettuce became one of my bestsellers and also, luckily, one of the few slightly profitable crops to grow partly because it matured so quickly, and partly because it always sold so well, in spite of the little grey slugs lurking inside many hearts (as they do). But in those days, other salad leaves were not in demand and lambs lettuce was almost the only different kind I grew, mostly to sell in March and April.

Moving to France in 1991 helped me to explore some new possibilities. Oddly enough the kitchen garden at our small farm grew purslane as one of its main summer weeds, far more than we could eat. Endives were often sold in local markets and pretty oak-leaved lettuce as well, but even there the locals phrase une salade meant lettuce or endive heart only. There was no interest in loose leaves of rocket, which after all came from Italy, or in oriental leaves from even farther away.

So my interest in the great potential of salad leaves lay dormant for a while. After returning to Britain, it was a request from Bill the Butcher in Bruton to create some bags of mixed leaves that opened my eyes to the possibilities for anyone with some soil, compost, a bit of spare room in the garden and a spirit of adventure. Since then I have enjoyed experimenting with different seeds, sowing dates, picking methods and growing media to discover new flavours, shapes and colours at all different times of year.

Salad bags from Lower Farm are now sold in many outlets within about four miles, enough distance to provide enough customers for everything I can grow. Picking takes much more time than growing and is a demanding job, bent over in the cool of the dawn; two of us gather leaves before and just after breakfast then mix, wash and pack them immediately so that people can eat them that day or pubs can serve them for lunch. Customer feedback is enthusiastic, often emphasising the leaves flavour and keeping ability which is because they are healthy and alive.

In this book I offer you the information needed to grow and harvest leaves of a similar quality and variety.

Leaf lettuce, coriander flowers and peas for shoots.

The Conjurors Hat

Salad leaves are one of the quickest and easiest vegetables you can grow. More than that, plants that are well looked after will provide long successions of harvests, without having to repeatedly sow or plant again. How to continually crop the same plants and give them a surprisingly long life a main theme of this book is explained in . New leaves just keep appearing it is almost magical.

Another key theme in the book is growing in small spaces and containers, which can be impressively productive. You may also find yourself appreciating the growing beauty of your range of salad plants, as much as their abundant contributions to the table.

The leaves you pick will also be full of seasonal characteristics, reflecting how different salads give of their best at particular times of year. Appreciating this calendar of salad seasons, explained in there is an explanation of how to use covered spaces to extend the season of growth and to ensure a steady supply of leaves for much of the winter, as well as earlier outdoor harvests in the spring.
Charles Dowding, Homeacres, January 2018

LEARNING NEW TRICKS

You do not need a large garden to grow good amounts of leaves. Small beds or containers can produce surprisingly large harvests. Whatever the size of your growing area, the important thing is to make the most of it.

Salad leaves are a great starting point if you have not grown food before. They reach harvest rapidly, look attractive while growing and bring a sparkle to many meals, with almost no preparation time.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

Salad plants can be long-lived when they are correctly chosen for the season and well tended. This is a key aspect of successful growing, enabling you to enjoy high production from small areas. Which plants are grown and how they are picked is as important as your general sowing and growing techniques (see