About four years ago I became enamored with potager (pronounced "pot-ah-jhay," accent on the first syllable), a French style of intensive year-round vegetable gardening. The idea is that as soon as one crop is finished producing, a new fresh seasonal crop is planted in its place, so that the garden, in rotations, produces edibles all months of the year. I've had good luck growing salad greens in rotations year round here in Clark County, and although I now grow my greens in garden beds, in the past I've successfully grown them in containers.

It's really quite easy to do, and because most salad greens are cool-season crops, this time of year provides excellent conditions to give it a try. The first step is to obtain a suitable container. Although beautiful terra cotta or cement pots are wonderfully ornamental and make beautiful accent pieces, salad greens can also be grown inexpensively in simple yet functional plastic containers as well. Be sure that the container is clean and safe for growing food that will end up inside your body. If I had to choose between a small or a large (eighteen inches tall and wide, or larger) container, I would always pick the larger container for ease of maintenance. Small containers dry out much faster than larger ones, and so require a more watchful waterer, especially during the summer months.

Next, prepare the container to receive the seeds. I like to line the bottom of the pot with a wire mesh, fine enough so that excess water can run out but the soil cannot. After that comes a two-inch layer of gravel for drainage, followed by your favorite potting soil. Fill the container with the potting soil to a level about four inches from the top. If you are filling a very large container, you can lighten the finished weight of the pot by using a filler in the bottom third of the container. I've used empty smaller pots turned upside down to take up a bit of space, thereby saving on potting soil. It's also best to move the pot to the location where you'd like it, then fill it with dirt, rather than fill it first and afterward have to move a heavy container. If the surface under the pot is susceptible to water damage, place a thin clear plastic drain pan under the container before you fill it.

I like to grow my own produce organically, so next I add some organic fertilizer to the soil. The best recipe I've seen for making your own homemade fertilizer is from Steve Solomon's book Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Natural Gardening. Solomon, a former proprietor of Territorial Seed Company in Oregon, suggests the following combination: four parts cottonseed meal or soy meal, one part dolomite lime, one part rock phosphate and one-half part kelp meal. These items can be purchased in small quantities (five pounds or so) from your favorite garden center and some livestock feed stores. Use something small and disposable (like a cottage cheese container) as your measure and mix it up in a bucket. Any unused fertilizer mix can be stored in a lidded watertight container. I'll sprinkle a thin layer of this all over the soil, then cover it with more potting soil until there is only two inches remaining from the top of the pot. This fertilizer will be a gift to your lettuce starts. Its location at this depth is useful, because while the seeds don't need fertilizer to germinate, by the time the roots of the starts reach the fertilizer, they will be at a stage where they will appreciate the boost they will get from it. Water the soil so it settles, and you are ready to go.

Now comes the fun part--deciding what salad greens you'd like to try. My taste runs toward spicy flavors and variety in colors and textures of the greens. Of course, one can purchase individual packets of all the varieties that you'd like to grow, but there are also some economical mixes that I enjoy planting. One is "Lettuce Mesclun--Q's Special Medley," put out by Botanical Interests. ("Mesclun," of Southern French origin, is a green salad mix of young leaves and shoots of wild and cultivated plants, which sometimes include edible flowers.) This is certified organic seed and is labeled as a good container variety. Selected by Colorado chef John Platt, the varieties include Lolla Rossa, Oakleaf, Summer Bibb, and Black Seeded Simpson lettuces, plus Arugula, Mizuna (a Japanese green with a mild sweet taste), and Tatsoi (an Asian salad green with small, dark-green spoon-shaped leaves). Another good mix is "Lettuce Mesclun--Bon Vivant Spicy," which includes Tango, Royal Oak Leaf, Red Salad Bowl, Black Seeded Simpson, Grand Rapids and Red Sails lettuces, plus Mizuna, Green Endive and Arugula. I've tested both of these, with delicious results. Both of these mixes include Arugula, also called 'Roquette,' which is one of my all-time favorite salad greens. Very quick to reach maturity (only thirty-five days to the baby greens stage), it adds a spicy accent to any green salad, and the flowers from the plant are edible as well. I also like to add some Mustard greens to my seed mixes, both for the glorious leaf colors and the exuberant tastes. 'Red Giant' Gai Choi Mustard is a sturdy variety with gorgeous burgundy-coppery leaves. 'Southern Giant Curled' Mustard, a green-leaved Mustard, as well as the Gai Choi and Arugula, are good cool-season varieties. I start them in the fall and they grow, then winter over through the colder months with only occasional protection with a clear plastic cover from icy weather, and they pull through valiantly. A final must-have (at least for me) is the inclusion of some Italian Flat-leaf Parsley to the seed mix. I combine a bit of all these seeds together, and then thinly broadcast this mix over the top of the container soil. Lightly cover with one-eighth of an inch of potting soil, gently press the soil down, and water.

You should see germination during the first five to fifteen days, with the parsley taking eighteen to twenty-four. The goal is to keep the container evenly moist so the seeds will germinate, and a hand-held watering can with a large rose is useful for its gentle release of the water, so as not to dislodge the seeds. When the plants are at the baby greens stage, about three to four inches long, you can pick outer leaves for salads, or you can implement a cut-and-come again approach by using sharp scissors to snip the leaves, leaving about an inch or so at the base. The plants will regrow for another harvest. Salad greens prefer cooler spring and fall temperatures, and so tend to bolt during the hot summer months. This is where the container gardener has an advantage over someone with a garden bed. You can place your container on a small platform with wheels, wheel it out into the sun when the sun is mild, move it to shade during the summer's heat, and even bring it inside to protect it from bitter winter freezes. In a container the roots of plants are more susceptible to cold damage, so if it goes down to the low forties or lower, I would bring the container into a protected area until it warms up a bit. If it remains cold, greens can be grown indoors under lights as well. To prolong your salad eating time, wait two weeks and then plant another container, and continue on at two to three week intervals until you run out of room or desire for salad ingredients.

But how could you not be tempted by these gourmet greens? They can be mixed into supermarket lettuces to jazz up ordinary salads, or they can star in the primary role all on their own. A delightful parsley salad can be made by mixing the parsley leaves with lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Try a Northwest bounty salad of your organic greens tossed with thinly sliced apple, dried cranberries, toasted walnuts and crumbled blue cheese, dressed with walnut oil and balsamic vinegar. Feel free to substitute pears and toasted pecans for the apple and walnuts, if you prefer. Once you've tried growing your own greens, and experienced the ease with which they grow and the superior flavors to which you'll have access, you will no longer be content with a head of iceberg and will become a full-fledged salad connoisseur.

All content copyright 2007-2011 Minerva's Garden