Lettuce and salad leaves that actually taste of something

[redser]

Brilliant, thanks a lot!

[veggiechicken]

My pleasure!!

[mothhawk]

Thanks everyone, lots of great ideas!

veggiechicken, it looks like you grow salad under your staging, is that right? Was thinking of the wasted space under my bench, might try use it for salad, it's farily high so maybe gets enough light.

If I remember right, the late, great, Geoff Hamilton used to plant saladings in the guttering he used for starting peas off in, and he hung it from the greenhouse roof supports so that empty space wasn't wasted either.

I've just sown some purslane for an added sharp flavour in salads.

[redser]

Got the Geoff Hamilton box set from Santa a couple of years back. Actually I ordered it for myself from the wife What a loss. Seems like every time he planted something he just chucked some muck and fish, blood and bone in. So that's what I've been doing.
Must keep my eye out for some guttering, thanks a lot.

[Urban]

Wild garlic (out now) and lovage are great tasty additons to salad. And I agree with the posts above, chives, corriander etc are also great to pep up those relatively boring salad leaves. Wild garlic flowers can be eaten too, and it is a great self seeder - you also find it wild in the west country, but not so much around here.

I have just picked garlic leaves, lovage, corn salad (overwintered) and the thinnings from Winter Density and we are having salad for tea along with some yummy pasta and cherries from the freezer!

Think there is something wrong with my lovage, it's far too strong to use in anything really
I grew it from a pack of seeds from b&q a couple of years ago, it was 7 foot tall last year, and I couldn't really use any of it, the hover flies and bees loved it though

It as a very alkaline almost astringent taste, makes you look like Esther rantzen when you eat some of it
I decided to move it to the bottom of the garden this year, as it looks a bit unsightly in mid summer
I think what I have might not actually be lovage, but the wildlife liking it so much as saved it

Back on topic, can't recommend rocket enough

[Creemteez]

Don't forget pea shoots! I tumbled a couple of handfuls of chitted peas into a shallow polystyrene box of compost and was cutting my first shoots within two or three weeks - and that was back in February.
They are still going strong - you should get several cuttings from them before they start to go over and they are lovely explosions of pea-flavour in a salad. Well worth a try.
I also grow Webb's Wonderful and Saladin which are iceberg types, and believe me, they bear no resemblance to the tasteless water-bombs you get in the supermarket. Lovely flavour.

[singleseeder]

Got the Geoff Hamilton box set from Santa a couple of years back. Actually I ordered it for myself from the wife What a loss.

Ooops, Redser. For a moment I thought you meant the wife

Geoff Hamilton is indeed very much missed.

[donnakebab]

When Alys Fowler did that TV series she planted some dried marrowfat pea seeds in a trough, let them sprout then cut them for salad when a few inches high. Easy and cheap, I've been doing it ever since. I'm also growing Mizuna.

[redser]

Ooops, Redser. For a moment I thought you meant the wife

Geoff Hamilton is indeed very much missed.

And much more handy around the garden than the wife