You can grow your own salad for dinner

If you have been thinking about trying your hand (or green thumbs) at growing your own vegetables, why not start by growing the ingredients for a delicious salad? Once you've tasted a salad you have made from freshly picked vegetables you will never be satisfied with the produce at the grocery store again.

While we have to wait until after Mother's Day to plant many vegetables, there are several varieties that thrive in cool spring weather.

Get ready to plant

If you are planting in the ground, make sure the soil is dry enough to be worked. Grab a handful of soil and gently squeeze it in your hand. If the soil crumbles when you open your hand, it is ready to plant; if it stays in a tight ball, wait for a few days and try again. Before planting, loosen the soil with a rototiller or a garden fork. It is difficult for sprouts to push through large clods, so make sure the top couple inches of soil is fine-textured.

Or plant vegetables in containers like I do. I use large terra cotta pots and Earth boxes for all my vegetables. If you garden in containers, use a soil-less potting mix and choose a container at least 10" across - but bigger is better. Grow these vegetables and harvest a mouth-watering salad for dinner.

Arugula

Arugula is grown for its leaves high in potassium and vitamin C. Its flavor may be too strong to be eaten alone, but it adds flavor to salad mixes.

Plant seeds 1/2 to 1 inch deep about 4 inches apart. Plant a small amount of seeds every seven days as long as plants have time to mature before hot weather. Each planting has a short window of harvesting for the best flavor. Harvest only young leaves because a bitter flavor develops in older leaves.

Lettuce

Leaf and romaine lettuces are probably the most often-grown lettuces in home gardens for salads. Plant seeds 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep about 4 inches apart for leaf lettuce and 6 to 8 inches apart for romaine lettuce. Because lettuce is shallow rooted, frequent light watering is best.

Leaf lettuce can be harvested as soon as it is large enough to use. Harvest romaine lettuce when it forms a long, medium-dense head.

Spinach

Spinach leaves are high in iron, beta carotene and folic acid. It is also rich in vitamins A and C.

Plant seeds 1/2 inch deep and 2 to 4 inches apart and keep spinach plants well watered. If new growth on plants is light green, feed plants with a fertilizer high in nitrogen.

Harvest spinach whenever leaves are large enough to use. Best flavor is on young leaves.

Carrots

Carrots are grown for their roots that are extremely rich in beta carotene. We are most familiar with orange carrots, but there are white, yellow and even purple varieties. They are also available in a wide range of sizes from long and slender to small and round.

Plant seeds 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep and 6 inches apart. Seeds may take up to 2 weeks to germinate and seedlings may not appear at the same time.

Depending on the variety, carrots can be harvested when their roots are at least 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter.

Onions

Grow onions from seeds, sets, or plants. I usually plant sets - or small bulbs less than 1" in diameter - to produce salad onions within 30 days of planting. Onions have shallow roots so they can't compete with weeds.

To produce salad onions, plant sets 1 inch deep and close enough to touch each other. They will be harvested before crowding becomes a problem.

Harvest onions anytime after the tops have grown 6 inches tall. They will become stronger in flavor as they grow and mature.

Radishes

Radishes are grown for their swollen roots - either long and cylindrical or small and round. Most are white or red, but Easter egg radishes can be purple, lavender or pink. Radishes are great vegetables to grow with children. They are not only easy to grow, but also mature very quickly.

Plant seeds 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep and 2 to 4 inches apart.

Radishes are ready to harvest before they are 1 inch in diameter. They are best eaten when they are young - radishes get spongy and hot as they mature.

Grow all these vegetables and you will be able to create a delicious, nutritious salad. Unfortunately, tomatoes and cucumbers are warm-weather vegetables so you'll have to wait to plant these until all danger of frost has passed.

Diana Stoll is a master gardener and the retail manager at The Planter's Palette, 28W571 Roosevelt Road, Winfield. Call (630) 293-1040 or visit their Web site at www.planterspalette.com for more information.