With the summer heatwave resumed, following cool wet conditions, it is understandable garden plants are confused and distressed. While tomatoes are flourishing, summer salads are struggling, particularly those grown in containers, going to seed or becoming tough and unpalatable. Thank goodness for the chards which suffer the conditions far better. Kitchen gardeners love the daily …Read More about Summer Chard
Posts relating to salads
Salad season
Over the next few weeks is the perfect salad season, just after the winter chill has passed and before the summer heat arrives. Lettuce does not like extreme heat so does best in spring months and after summer. Growing in trays and pots works very well in cities, whether indoors on windowsills or outdoors on …Read More about Salad season
Salads love rain
Gardeners love a bit of summer rain, especially when they have a few days notice of it coming. Summer can be a difficult time to keep salad crops going, extreme temperatures make it difficult to start new crops and cause existing crops to bolt. Thus knowing a bit of rain is forecast is the time …Read More about Salads love rain
Balcony farming
Growing your own salad on a windowsill or balcony has never been easier. In recent years varieties have appeared for “cut and come again” growing which enable a constant supply of fresh leaves over many months. Salads prefer the cool months either side of summer so now is the time to start. The tools required …Read More about Balcony farming
Finishing winter salad
This is the time of year to be starting spring salads in trays and pots. As long as temperatures remain above 5 degrees seeds can be directly sown into containers and left to grow. With the recent mild winters it is possible to grow a good quantity of salad crops year round. The mainstay of …Read More about Finishing winter salad
Growing salad gallery
Growing salad in containers is a relatively new approach that avoids many of the problems associated with open soil cultivation. The “cut and come again” method, which provides a constant supply of leaves (rather than full heads of lettuce) means a couple of box trays can produce an excellent salad mix for several months of …Read More about Growing salad gallery