Digging & Dreaming

Salad Boxes for the Garden

Even though we grow lots and lots of food on the allotment we still like to grow some in the back garden too. In particular salad crops and herbs that are perishable so are best grown close to the kitchen so that they can be eaten fresh. In fact, one of the first things that I ever grew that started to get me hooked on growing was a trough of salad leaves in my backyard. You only need to grow them once to understand how easy they are and how much money you can save by growing your own.

This weekend Jo decided that he'd have a go of making some new planters for the garden to add to the old ones we've got that struggled to fit in all the salad we wanted to grow last year. This is the design that he came up with this time which I really like because of the multi-levels that he's created. I thinking of have lettuce leaves in the bottom layer and cascading beans and tomatoes coming down from the top layer - a really handsome combination I'm sure you'll agree? We just need to stain them now to protect the wood and add a plastic liner to plant into (we normally use old compost sacks and staple them inside). Then the only thing left to do is to plant them up and wait eagerly until they are providing gorgeous fresh salad all through the summer. I promise I'll share a picture when they're planted up to let you know how they get on.

By the way, if you look carefully you can see one of the first planters that Jo made for me propped up in the back of this picture. This one is nearly seven years old now showing how long they can last if you give them a little tlc and maintenance every winter.

Wild About Salad

A couple of weeks ago I was over in Lancaster for my Permaculture course. As part of the lunch that we share a fellow student bought in an amazing foraged salad made up entirely of leaves and flowers that she had found growing wild on the estate where she lives. The salad was delicious and inspired me to think about being a little more creative when I'm making salads at home. The one in the picture above is the first example of this newfound creativity.

I'm not quite as confident as Robin who created the salad I ate in Lancsater but taking inspiration from hers I decided to add common lettuce we are growing with more unusual leaves. On that basis this tasty little bowl contained mixed Italian Lettuce leaves, Radicchio, Sorrel, Nasturtium leaves and flowers and Calendula petals. Needless to say, the salad was absolutely delicious and went down a storm in my house! In fact, I'm already planning what I'd like to add to my next one. I particularly love the taste and look that flowers and petals add so any suggestions on other edible flowers would be much appreciated.