Best Way to Make a Salad or Herb Bed

There are times when all you need is a little salad for a garnish or a pinch of herbs for cooking. Even if you have a vegetable plot at the end of the garden, think how convenient it would be to have a supply of fresh salad leaves or herbs just outside the kitchen door. Even a small patio or balcony can be used to grow a constant supply of salad leaves and herbs, either in large containers or in a small raised bed.

Any large tub or container will do, including hanging baskets and window boxes, but the bigger the volume of compost, the easier the plants will be to look after. On a balcony, choose lightweight containers such as plastic or fibreglass and use soil-less compost, as this is not as heavy as soil-based types.

Building a salad bar

An alternative to using a container is to build a wooden box to contain your herb or salad bed. The principle is the same as for making a raised bed in that planks or lengths of gravel board are fixed securely to corner posts, though the box is smaller.

A box that will stand on a patio or area of concrete should be made at least 45cm deep for vegetables, and 15cm for smaller herbs. Boxes built directly on to soil could be shallower, but dig the soil over first and improve it by adding garden compost or well-rotted manure for salads. Top the box up with ordinary well-drained garden topsoil for herbs.

A box or bed just one square metre in size should provide ample supplies of fresh leafy salad or herbs throughout the summer. Herbs are best grown separated from one another. An easy and attractive way to do this is to lift a group of, say, four 45-cm square paving slabs from a sunny patio. Build a tiered raised bed using three squares. Rotate each layer by 45 degrees to give nine separate planting pockets for herbs such as chives, sage, tarragon, thyme and marjoram. Fill with free-draining soil or a grit and compost mix. A layer of fine gravel will keep the soil moist.

Feeding and watering

Whatever container you use, leafy salads are best grown rapidly without any check to their growth, so keep the soil moist by watering regularly. Even if you added organic matter at the start of the season, the bed may benefit from an occasional feed – use a liquid feed with a high nitrogen content.

Herbs are generally less fussy and will thrive without regular watering once they are established. Feeding herbs is only necessary if you crop them intensively, for example, cutting off handfuls of chives or parsley every couple of weeks.

Cut-and-come-again

This technique is used to produce a regular supply of young leaves for mixed salads. If you regularly buy packs of mixed salad, copy the list of ingredients – chicory and endive, chervil, mizuna, chard, spinach and so on – and try growing your own.