My salad growing has not been good in the last few weeks. The seeds I've sown have not germinated or I suspect have been eaten by slugs early on. We've had so much rain, that when I have been able to get out into the garden there have been so many other things to see to that the salad has got neglected.
There are still salad leaves for picking--red salad bowl, watercress, mustard and rocket. The rocket and mustard have flowered and look very pretty! I can't remember when I last bought any lettuce.
I haven't done well with the sowing of new salad leaves. In fact things were so bad that when I went to the garden centre the other week I bought a tray of salad leaves to plant in the hope that they would be strong enough to resist the slugs. Well I planted them and they are still there so there's hope yet. They might do bettter than my own sowings.
In the cold frame the cucumbers produced some tiny fruit, but some were chewed at by the slugs. And after the heavy rain this week the plants looked so bad that I decided to give up and throw them out.
The good news is that we have a growhouse now at the allotment and I'm wondering if we might be able to grow some salad in there during the colder months. Also at the allotment the fennel we planted last month is looking good. Some of the beetroot we planted earlier in the year didn't get thinned out so we harvested them as baby beets and they were lovely in a salad. There is plenty more beetroot both at the allotment and in the garden cold frame.
In the next few weeks I shall be sowing some winter salad leaves and start sowing seed for microgreens and pea shoots again for the cooler months.
For more information on growing salad crops and recipes to try check out the 52 Week Salad Challenge posts on veg plotting's blog
