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Turn over a new leaf

Owen Pidgeon

Lettuce hints ... Keep the plot weed free and remove wood or broken bricks to minimise hiding places for pests.
Lettuce hints ... Keep the plot weed free and remove wood or broken bricks to minimise hiding places for pests.Danielle Smith

Now the weather is warmer we can turn our attention in the garden to salads. It is much cheaper to grow your own than to buy lettuces - and much fresher.

Growing lettuces has easy and difficult aspects. You can choose varieties to provide you leaves across many months, and you can look to picking some baby leaves within six to eight weeks from planting seeds. But lettuce seeds can be difficult to germinate if it's too cold or hot. And it's a challenge to avoid having just one large crop ready to pick at once.

Plant a small number of seeds in seed-raising trays or punnets each week or fortnight, planting the seeds at a depth of one centimetre. Transplant them into the garden when they are three centimetres to four centimetres high.

Staggering the crop is a productive way of growing lettuce.
Staggering the crop is a productive way of growing lettuce.Cathryn Tremain
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Provide lettuces and other salads with the richest soil and soil that retains moisture. They must be watered regularly - deep waterings morning and evening. In mid summer, provide shade from the hot afternoon sun as salad leafy plants do not like very hot conditions and wilt quickly.

Be diligent keeping slugs and snails at bay. Keep the garden plot weed free and remove wood or broken bricks to minimise hiding places for these pests.

I like to grow loose-leaf lettuces, which don't form a heart because you can harvest the outer leaves and continue to harvest every few days. Green coral and oakleaf are two excellent loose-leaf lettuces. Lollo rosso and lollo biondo produce ruffled leaves. "Marvel of four seasons" is a heirloom variety from France with burgundy-coloured outer leaves.

The colourful mignonettes, green and brown, are part of the butterhead group of lettuces. The leaves are quite soft and can be either flat or frilly.

Cos and semi-cos lettuces have longer, crisper leaves and tend to be more upright. They are often referred to as romaine lettuces. Cos verdi produces open upright heads with bright green leaves. Paris island cos produces slightly ribbed leaves and a creamy white heart.

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The fourth group is the well-known "crisphead". Iceberg with its medium-sized heart can sustain heat better than many. Great lakes is a good, large-sized variety with dark-green crumpled leaves that can be grown from spring through to autumn, but it takes up to 12 weeks to fully grow.

Mustard greens can be grown alongside your lettuces in both spring and autumn. Green wave produces pale green, lightly ribbed leaves with deeply curled edges. It will provide a hot mustardy flavour to your salads but when cooked like spinach the tang is removed. Red giant and red splendour mustard produce large, tender green and red-coloured leaves that can be harvested within six weeks.

Rocket is a very well known salad plant. It is mildly spicy and can be used in cooking. It tolerates cooler conditions so can be grown in spring and autumn to produce a quick crop within eight weeks.

Mitsuba and mizuna are two excellent, aromatic Japanese origin salad greens. They produce long serrated leaves that are mild to taste. Best grown in early spring and autumn to avoid very hot weather.


This week

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■ Plant herb seeds into pots, including sage, basil and coriander. Parsley and dill can be planted directly into the garden. Oregano and marjoram are harder to propagate so buy a punnet of seedlings from your nearby garden centre. Prune back shrubs of rosemary;

■ Plant rows of stringless beans, carrots, radishes, beetroot and snowpeas. Plant four rows of sweet corn into a rich garden bed, to ensure good cross pollination;

■ Prepare your garden bed for planting tomatoes, capsicums and eggplant at the end of the month;

■ Plant pumpkin, zucchini and button squash seeds into well-prepared garden beds with lots of compost and organic matter to allow the roots to grow deep down and be well fed. Try planting rockmelon and small watermelons in seed trays to get them started before planting in the garden;

■ Tomato seedlings can be transplanted into larger pots with more of the stem being buried. They will grow more roots off the stem and continue to produce abundant leaves while they wait for the outside night temperatures to rise;

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■ Spray apple trees every eight to 10 days with a 1 per cent lime-sulphur solution as the safest way of controlling the spread of apple scab (black spot), Apple scab is a fungus that has been carried over from the previous season on fallen leaves.

>> Owen Pidgeon owns the Loriendale Organic Orchard near Hall.

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