Salad greens are among the easiest and most rewarding plants to grow.  Simple, sweet and tasty, they seem completely undaunted even as the turbulent winds of eary spring howl over them.  All salad greens need are a little soil, sunlight and water and they can be grown almost anywhere:  vegetable gardens, alongside tulips in flower beds, even nestled into containers.  They mix and mingle well.

The most familiar lettuces are the iceberg and green- or red-leaf varieties found in produce aisles.  But there are hundreds of other greens, including mustard greens, spinach, endive, radicchio, beet greens, parsley, mache and cresses, each with its own delectable flavor and color.

Growing your own greens not only lets you try new and exciting varieties, but it is a real cost saver, too.  For the price of one packet of seed you can have delicious salads for several weeks. And if you plant the seeds early in cold frames, you'll have homegrown greens long before most plants in the garden even emerge.  In fact, they grow best in the cool, rainy days of early spring and late fall.  (If you've ever tried to grow greens in the hot summertime, you know that they tend to languish in the heat).

Some gardeners grow each variety of salad green  separately in rows or planted in containers, while others combine four or five different kinds to create mesclun, a seasonal mixture of greens grown and harvested together.  You can easily make your own mix with a variety of leaf lettuces and other greens, or you can purchase premixed seed packets.

To get a continuous supply of delicious greens through spring and early summer, sow a handful of seeds every 10 days or so.  As the temperature climbs it will challenge even those varieties of lettuce that are considered slow to "bolt" (becomes leathery and tough).  Make final plantings two months before the maximum daytime temperatures average 80 degrees.

FIVE EASY STEPS TO GROWING GREENS

• To grow salad greens in a garden bed, prepare an area that's 2 to 3 square feet.  Break up the soil with a garden fork, so it has an even, fine texture.  Or fill a container with good-quality potting soil.  Then moisten the soil.
• Pour seeds into your palm.  (If growing several varieties together, mix the seeds first in a jar, then pour a small amount into your hand.)  Close your hand and scatter the seeds as evenly as possible over the soil.  (as seedlings emerge you may need to thin them a little.) Sift fine soil or potting mix lightly over seeds, covering them with a layer about 1/4 inch deep.  Sprinkle with water, wetting the soil gently but thoroughly.
• Keep the seedbed evenly moist until seedlings emerge, usually in about one to two weeks (they may come up at different rates).
• After about 35 to 45 days (some take a bit longer) greens should be roughly 4 to 5 inches tall, which is when they're perfect for salads.  Use scissors to snip off leaves, being careful to leave 1 to 2 inches of the plant above the soil level.  Gently wash and dry the leaves.  Fresh greens are best used as soon as possible but can be stored for a few days in an airtight plastic bag in the refrigerator crisper.
• Keep watering the bed, and feed lightly with liquid fish fertilizer, available in garden centers.  Salad greens are "cut-and-come-again" crops that will regrow, so you'll be able to enjoy another couple of harvests.

Fresh from the garden, these greens are so delicious all you'll need to add is a little vinaigrette dressing.

HONEY BALSAMIC VINEGAR VINAIGRETTE

Makes 1-1/4 cups or 8 servings

I use this basic vinaigrette on a medley of just-picked greens.  Wait to toss the salad with the dressing until just before serving.

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 cloves, fresh garlic, crushed
• 1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl to blend.  Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week.  Whisk to recombine just before using.

SOME OF OUR FAVORITE SALAD GREENS

• Butter Crunch.  This large, heat-resistant butterhead type is one of my all-time favorites.  The velvet-like leaves have a buttery flavor that surpasses most lettuce varieties.  It grows as a loose head with smooth ruffled green outer leaves and a yellow-white compact center or heart.  So tasty all it needs is a little dressing. (65 days from planting to harvest.)
• Freckles Romaine.  I encourage you to grow this unique-looking lettuce, which has bright-green leaves that are speckled with red.  (You can harvest the tasty young heads in about 28 days or the full-size heads in 55 days.)
• Malabar Spinach.  Not a true spinach, this climbing plant is ideal for containers and small gardens because it takes little space.  Sometimes used for its ornamental qualities, it produces large dark-green leaves and vines.  Presoaking the seeds for 24 hours in warm water before planting shortens germination time.  (45 to 55 days).
• Bright Lights Swiss Chard.  This is a dazzler in the garden, with pink, red, bright-gold, pale-orange, white and mauve stems holding green to bronze-green leaves.  Use the stalks as you would celery or asparagus.  (The baby greens can be harvested to be eaten raw in 50 days,or wait 62 days to cook with garlic or nutmeg and butter to enhance the chard's flavor.)

WE HOPE THIS LITTLE BIT OF "GREEN" INFORMATION ON SALADS WILL BE HELPFUL TO YOU!!