Like everything this year, the garden has been a little slow in producing spring salads fixings. Salad greens and sundry, i.e spinach, mustard greens, cress, lettuce, and radishes, to name just a few — are some of the first crops that I sow directly outdoors each spring. As soon as the soil is workable (meaning thawed), I am out there amending the beds with fresh compost and sowing the seeds that will become a large part of my meals in the coming months.

This year I was unable to sow until early to mid- April, which is quite late. I found that many plants were very slow to emerge. Even the beds that were covered with protective materials sputtered along slowly. Just a week ago I was finally able to glean enough small bits of this and that to put together two salads per day. Since the harvests have been particularly heavy on ‘Giant Red’ mustard (it self-sows in several beds), we were still buying baby arugula from the market to balance out the flavours. A week later and the season has finally hit its stride. I am now harvesting big quantities of a balance of greens each day and there is enough for me to eat a big lunch time salad as well as salad for two or more should friends come by for dinner.

Cress (Lepidium sativum) has a nice spicy, tangy bite that is really delicious in salads and on sandwiches. Grow lots! I direct sow mine from seed in the very early spring. It gets increasingly spicy in the summer heat.

This is the best time of year! I take great pleasure in heading out each day with a bowl and a pair of scissors to collect fresh greens and edible flowers. The salads that come from my garden are not yellowing or limp and they did not travel halfway across the continent or sit for days in plastic cell packs. They are also diversely flavoured and full of all sorts of seasonal treats that are not available in any store.

If you’re in a cooler climate, it’s not too late to sow a few greens. Check out my tips and suggestions in the Lettuce and Salad Greens Growing Guide. And if you’re in a warmer climate I suggest trying wild Italian arugula aka rucola selvatica (Diplotaxis tenuifolia). Mine self-sows every year and is just starting to appear. It tolerates and even prefers warmer temperatures than the popular ‘Rocket’ variety and won’t germinate until the soil has warmed up some. It can grow to be quite sharply flavoured when the heat comes on, but I find it is still palatable in mid-summer when many other greens have bit the dust.