Summer Salads - Grow Your Own Wants Your Advice!!

[nick the grief]

I've usually got one or two packets of "mesclun" ......r.

Isn't this the stuff south american indians get stoned on

[Earthbabe]

LOL!

Sorry NTG but that was Mescaline. Aldous Huxley and others were big fans too.

[momol]

I am thinking of growing some amaranth ( green and red leaves ), water convolvulus, new zealands spinach, water cress , collards, shungiku ( both leaves and flower are edible ) & iceplant ( mesembryanthemum chrystellinum ) for this summer... they are all heat resistant and can be eaten raw as salad or cooked.

[Earthbabe]

Sounds interesting momol. I didn't know you could eat iceplant. What is it like?

I'm going to try some Rock Samphire for steaming and pickling.

BTW Welcome to the vine. Hope you enjoy it here.

[momol]

Hi Earthbeth,

Thanks,I enjoy being here... nice to know people with same interest

Yes it is edible, taste a bit salty , crunchy and it looks gorgeous too. There are many types of ice plant which is edible but this one is really pallatable. It is famous in Germany as iceplant salad (I missed it ) but it could also be eaten cooked ( steamed ). It is a bit difficult to discribe the shape but I do have it's website with it's latin name and photo. ( is it ok to post it here ? ) just pm me if you would like to have the web site

What is rock samphire ?

[Lesley Jay]

Momol post the link to the site so that we can see the edible iceplant.

[momol]

Just a second thought, I think it sould be ok to post in a website, here is the plant web I am talking about :

http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~st...500/02332.html

Enjoy,

Momol

[Lesley Jay]

That is a completely different Mesembryanthemum. Nothing like the ones we grow as bedding plants.

[momol]

Hi lesley,

I haven't been able to get the seed so far, but from what I read, it is good for ground cover and it can collect the salt from the ground and stores it in it's cell ( due to that the surface of the plant look bumpy like being covered with ice christal... gorgeous ). It can take drought, can be grown at coastal area and has been cultivated in germany and used for salad
mix ( with other cactus/ succulent plant ) = iceplant salad
If you have any info about the iceplant seed supplier, please let me know, thanks, Momol

[Earthbabe]

It is beautiful momol, thanks.

Rock samphire is a relative of marsh samphire which is grown in places like Norfolk but also Guerande in Brittany and similar areas. The french know it as salicorne which is where I first came across it. I can occasionally get it from a fishmonger in April/may time.

There's a picture of Samphire here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samphire

[ugly gourd]

My OH made a trough on legs about 3ft by 5ft and 4ft tall and I sow little rows of salad stuff and it has hoops over it that has netting on just keep well watered and ive got my own salad bar

[momol]

Hi Earthbabe,

Thanks enjoy your Rock Samphire

Momol

[Protea]

Because my lottie is a car drive away, i can't be bothered growing much salad up there - i grow a few heading lettuces, but they normally bolt before i have time to eat them!

So last year i bought a grow bag and put it in a sunny spot on my garden path at home, i basically cut the top of the plastic off, exposing the compost and tied some string round the middle of the bag to keep it together. My first crop was a big one of radishes sowed direct with some mixed salad leaves inbetween the rows. I got an earlier crop by covering the grow bag with a sheet of clear plastic until they had germinated, it also stoped the bag getting drenched in the spring downpours! When the radishes were done i continued to sow a succession of mixtures of other salad leaves including letuce, spinach and wild rocket. Of course you could add anything you like to it. I recycled the compost at the end of the season as a top dressing on my lottie or garden border, or into the compost heap!

[Earthbabe]

I agree Protea that salad stuff on a lottie can be problematic if you can't get there at least every other day. I am hoping this may be easier if I get the job I've applied for. Strangely the salad I grew in the garden last year didn't do that well. Well that which didn't get chewed by a marauding rabbit

[Hazel at the Hill]

Oh gosh! As a newbie allotment holder (Nov 06) I just assumed that I'd put all the salady stuff in with reference to the Plan and it would give me all that I need!

But reading this thread, as the Hill is a car ride away for me too, I hope that growing the salad down there will be ok (ref: bolting lettuces) - especially as there should be no difficulty popping down there most days.

At home I have a courtyard garden, and anything that looks vaguely like earth, my 'orrible cats make a beeline for - strawberries in trenches have not been a success for this reason! So the growbag-on-the-patio etc. is also out!

I am, however, reading all these excellent tips with great interest - and hope to be able to adapt at least some to my situation.