SANTA CRUZ (August, 2009) - Cool summer weather throughout coastal California has put a damper on this year's tomato season, disappointing home gardeners from Marin to Monterey with scrawny plants, flower drop and late-ripening fruit.
But a bad year for tomatoes can be a great year for salad greens. While the tomatoes in my garden are a fraction of their normal size, (and the heirloom varieties got yanked out weeks ago, ending their misery), the salad beds have been producing bushels of tender greens since early spring.
It’s too late in the season to start over with new tomato plants. But there’s plenty of time to grow your own salad mix from seeds and starts. Plant now, and begin eating home-grown salads by Labor Day.
Start your salad greens from seed instead of buying starts in a cell-pack. Why spend $3 for six tiny lettuces when a $2.79 packet of seed mix can produce more than 100 plants?
There are many good seed mixes on the market, but I’ve had excellent results from two blends by Renee’s Garden seeds, headquartered in Felton and available at local nurseries.
Renee’s Farmers Market Lettuce Blend, containing four types of green and red lettuces, makes a beautiful presentation in the garden and the salad bowl. For the more adventurous palate, Renee’s Gourmet Mesclun Salad Asian Baby Leaf mix is a blend of seven different varieties, ranging from mild Mizuna, Totsoi and Chinese Cabbage to spicy Rocket (Arugula), Komatsuna and red and green mustard.
I plant half of an 8' x 4' raised bed with each of these mixes, making it easier to tailor the spiciness profile of my salads. While most adults enjoy a little tang to their salad, one picante mouthful of mustard leaf can turn a kid into a very suspicious salad eater.
For even more variety, tuck a handful of fast-growing beet seeds into the salad bed, and pluck the mild-tasting baby leaves for your mix. By the time your salad bed has gone to seed, the beets will be ready for harvest.
Prepare your salad bed by breaking up the soil with a hand tool, mixing in compost if the soil is dusty and depleted. Water the bed well a day before you plant, so water will soak in evenly once your seeds are in place. Rake and smooth the soil, sprinkle the seeds over the surface, and pat them down with a gloved hand.
Sprinkle a quarter-inch of soil or compost over your seeds, and follow that with a light layer of rice straw. The straw layer diffuses water sprinkled from above, helps keep the soil and seeds from shifting around, and conserves moisture. Rice straw is the best choice because it doesn't contain weed seeds. The straw layer should be light enough to allow sunshine to reach the soil, and allow the little plants to grow through the gaps.
Keep the bed moist (not soggy) until the seeds germinate, about a week, and then cut back watering to encourage deeper root growth.
Keep in mind that lettuces like it cool and moist – letting the bed dry out completely will encourage plants to bolt (send up flowers), will make spicy varieties spicier, and can add a bitter taste to mild lettuces. If a heat wave strikes, water deeply and stretch a piece of shade cloth over your bed to extend the harvest.
You can begin harvesting as soon as your little greens have three or four leaves. The first few harvests require pinching or snipping a leaf or two from each tiny plant. It is labor intensive, but the flavor and quality of the salad are incomparable. As the plants become more crowded, thin the bed by pulling entire plants, pinching off the roots, and tossing the leaves into your basket.
If you have the room, plant another salad bed three or four weeks after the first planting. This rotation will keep the produce coming with no waiting between crops. Now, in early August, I’m harvesting the fourth salad bed of the season, and the fifth is sending up its first true leaves.
Even with overcast skies, long summer days will encourage rapid growth from tender greens. In much of our coastal zone, winters are mild enough to grow greens, scallions and snap peas year-round, though growth slows dramatically in winter.
Green onions, a salad staple, are slow to grow from seed, but nursery starts can be a good option. Green onions, also called scallions or “bunching onions,” are usually seeded thickly in the six-pack, with as many as 20 individual plants crammed into each cell.
The seedlings have to be teased apart gently, by rolling the tangled root ball between your palms and softly tugging each green shoot free. Some roots will break, but the plants will be fine if even one root thread remains intact. Plant the root about an inch deep, and keep the bed moist until all of the little onions perk up and start growing again, which should take no more than a week.
Near the coast, snap peas can be planted in August from seed or starts, but they need to be protected from heat waves. Plant them beneath a teepee-shaped trellis, and toss a shade cloth over the top if temperatures begin to soar.
The only downside to growing your own salad is that you’ll be spoiled by the fabulous taste and freshness. Because once you’ve grown your own salad mix, you’ll never want to eat that stuff in the bag again.
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