Instead of heading to the grocery store for the ingredients of a salad -- complete with masks and social distance -- grow them in your own backyard. Once you've tasted a salad made from vegetables picked fresh from your own garden, you will never be satisfied with the produce at the grocery store again, even when the need for masks and hand sanitizer is behind us.
If you don't already have a garden, choose a spot in the yard that receives a lot of sun and is as close as possible to a source of water. When rainfall is insufficient, it is no fun dragging a hose to the back of your property.
Remove grass and then loosen the soil with a rototiller or garden fork. Apply several inches of compost and work it into the soil to improve its texture, making it easier for roots to grow.
If there isn't a suitable spot in the yard, plant your salad garden in containers. Any containers will work as long as they have drainage holes and are at least 10 inches across -- bigger is better. Fill them with good quality potting mix (never soil from the garden) and mix in an organic fertilizer.
Arugula adds its distinctive flavor to salads. Plant seeds one-half inch to 1 inch deep and 4 inches apart. Unless you love its strong flavor, you only need a little to add to lettuce mixes. Plant a small quantity of seeds every week or so and you will always have a fresh crop to harvest until hot summer temperatures set in.
Leaf and romaine lettuces are the most often homegrown lettuces. Plant seeds just one-quarter to one-half inch deep and 4 inches apart for leaf lettuce, 6 to 8 inches apart for romaine lettuce -- or lightly scatter seeds over the soil and lightly rake them under.
Lettuce is shallow rooted and requires consistent moisture. Leaf lettuce is ready to harvest as soon as the leaves are large enough to use. Let romaine lettuce develop into a long, medium-dense head before harvesting.
Spinach is a favorite nutrition boost to add to salads. Plant seeds one-half inch deep and 2 to 4 inches apart. Spinach plants also prefer consistently moist soil. Harvest young leaves; they have the best flavor.
Grow onions from onion sets. Push these small bulbs 1 inch deep in the soil. For salad onions, plant bulbs close together and begin harvesting when the tops have grown 6 inches tall. Pick every other plant, giving the remaining bulbs more room to grow. The larger they grow, the stronger their flavor will be.
Most varieties of radishes are red or white, but there are also types in shades of purple, lavender and pink. Plant seeds just one-quarter to a half inch deep and only 2 to 4 inches apart. Radishes germinate and grow quickly. They are best harvested before they are 1 inch in diameter unless you prefer a hotter taste.
These vegetables can all be planted now, and you will be eating mouthwatering spring salads before you know it. After Mother's Day, plant tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers and you will have fresh ingredients for summer salads, too.
• Diana Stoll is a horticulturist, garden writer and speaker. She blogs at gardenwithdiana.com.
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How to grow tasty ingredients for your salads - Chicago Daily Herald
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