Felder's Backyard Salad

Why gamble on store-bought leafy greens, when growing our own is easy with less risk?

I eat out a lot, and don’t want to have to wonder what might be lurking in what comes with most of my favorite meals. And these days especially have occasional second thoughts.

But for decades I have known that growing leafy veggies and herbs at home is almost embarrassingly easy, especially in our cool late summer, fall, late winter, and spring. Not so easy with lettuce in these hot Dog Days, but there are lots of workarounds.

Doesn’t take much space, expense, or effort to grow lettuce, kale, collards, cabbage, turnip greens, mustard, Swiss chard, and summer-loving amaranth and Malabar spinach all grow well in small, raised beds or even porch step pots. Ditto for other culinary herbs from oregano and rosemary to basils, mints, garlic, thyme, and parsley, all which are edimental - as pretty as they are delicious. I have even grown salad greens and herbs in hanging baskets, away from slugs and cats!

All it takes is a container, soil, seeds, water, a few hours of sunshine, and a little fertilizer, natural or otherwise. Maybe some reusable insect netting.

And some considerations on the best season for some plants.

There are variations on all those basics, of course. My raised bed is mostly native dirt with some bark, cheap potting soil, compost, or manure added to fluff it up; my potted veggies are grown in good potting soil with a little real compost added to liven it up. I have them where they get seven or eight hours of direct sun, which is plenty for leafy green plants.

And I have really fast turnover because I harvest lettuce while young and tender and before bugs find it. I can grow it from seed to plate in just four or five weeks, and because I stagger my plantings, starting new rows or pots every couple of weeks, I have a steady supply going nearly all year long.

It only takes a few days for seeds of lettuce to sprout in moist soil, and from there just three weeks or so to start snipping a few leaves to munch. I grow mostly colorful open-leaf type lettuces and maybe a little romaine, all which can be harvested as they grow; heading types take longer. I grow them all together, sowing a mix of four or five different kinds scattered very thinly directly on top of the soil or in small pots to be transplanted later.

Biggest two caveats I run into is planting seed too thick which causes weak, leggy growth and disease and pest problems, and planting some things in the wrong season. To avoid the first, I mix tiny seed with sand to make spreading thinly easier, and I pluck and eat the crowded seedlings as they grow.

Though light shade can reduce heat and frost cloths can prolong the winter growing season (or bring pots indoors temporarily), most leafy greens hate hot or freezing weather, so I plant mostly in late winter and again late summer; the only leafy greens I can grow in the heat of summer are the small, ornamental vining Malabar spinach and colorful heat-tolerant amaranth (called “callaloo” in Jamaica). I have also eaten nutritious okra and sweet potato leaves. For winter I stick with super-cold hardy collards and various kales which are also very ornamental.

Main thing for now is, you can grow your own pesticide free leafy greens, all year, even in pots in small sunny spaces. And not worry about the possibility of unwashed hands.