How to Grow and Make a Delicious Salad

It’s funny that asparagus is not at all an outlandish expensive vegetable from the supermarket. This is nothing more than a “herringbone” – a plant without which not a single bouquet could do a decade ago. Another name is asparagus.

Only they do not eat adult asparagus greens, but juicy white shoots that develop in early spring from buds wintering in the ground. They taste wonderful – they resemble young peas.

Asparagus is healthier than most garden vegetables, as it contains vitamins of group B, PP, C, carotene in huge quantities. With its satiety, it is low in calories.

Growing conditions: Loves light, loose soils, sunny places, demanding watering – with a lack of moisture, the shoots become tough and bitter. Planted with seeds (late May – early June) or seedlings in August.

Asparagus can grow well in one place for up to 20 years.

Grades: Arzhentelskaya, Tsarskaya.

Delicious juicy cyclic salad with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Leaves are more useful than ordinary lettuce, they contain vitamin C, carotene, vitamins B, PP, iron, magnesium and phosphorus salts. Endive is useful for diabetics – it contains inulin, an easily digestible carbohydrate.

Growing conditions: The salad is picky about soil fertility, does not tolerate acidic, compacted or heavy soils, the introduction of fresh manure. Endive is planted from April to July with seedlings and seeds. Sowing seeds – to a depth of 1-1,5 cm, distance between plants – 25-30 cm, row spacing – 40 cm. Since the root system is located close to the soil surface, lettuce does not tolerate even a short drought. With a lack of watering, the leaves are bitter.

To make the salad more tasty, it is bleached – 2 weeks before harvesting, the stems are tied and wrapped with a cloth.

Grades: Spring, Lace, Curly Yellow, Ruffek.

Such a beautiful name was given to the leaf beet. The selection of this plant was aimed at the formation of tasty leaves with thick, juicy petioles. Today, varieties with orange, red, yellow and green petioles and leaf veins have been bred. Mangold is delicious in salad, soup and at the same time healthy – it contains a lot of carotene, vitamin C.

Growing conditions: He loves fertile, not acidic, light soils and watering – the leaves become tough from lack of water. Seeds are sown three times per season: in the first decade of May – for seedlings, in mid-June – in the ground and before winter – at the end of October. It takes 2-2,5 months from sowing to harvest. Flower arrows that appear regularly should be removed. Sowing in rows with a distance of 30-40 cm between rows, 20-30 cm between plants in a row is recommended.

Grades: Scarlet, Bride, Ruby, Emerald, Beauty.

Ruccola

Arugula is a salad plant of the cabbage family that is very popular in Europe. This is an early ripening, moisture-loving and cold-resistant culture. Young plants tolerate frosts up to 6 ° C. Arugula has a specific bitter taste; it is believed that it perfectly sets off the taste of meat and fish dishes.

Arugula leaves are rich in vitamins, especially ascorbic acid. Due to the presence of flavonoids, arugula strengthens the walls of blood capillaries. It is used as a tonic.

Growing conditions: Arugula is a light and moisture-loving plant; with regular watering, the leaves become larger and tender, less bitter. In hot dry weather, combined with long daylight hours, arugula quickly turns into flowering.

Arugula can be sown at several times: early spring, early July and August. They are sown in rows every 30-40 cm, with a seed planting depth of 1-1,5 cm. On the 5-6th day, seedlings appear, and after 2 weeks the first green leaves can be plucked.

Autumn seedlings can be transplanted into pots and placed on the windowsill – they will take root perfectly and will delight with fresh herbs in the cold.

Grades: early ripening – Solitaire, Rococo; mid-season – Corsica, Rocket, Sicily, Euphoria.

The plant is unique in its nutritional value – its leaves contain protein (34% – as in meat) and vegetable fats. There are many different vitamins in the leaves – C, A, B1, B2, B6, PP, P, E, D2, K and a large amount of iron in an easily digestible form.

Growing conditions: Spinach is best planted in cultivated, rich, light and slightly acidic soil. The presence of nitrogen in the soil is very important – spinach reacts to its lack with a sharp decrease in yield. You cannot feed with manure – spinach accumulates nitrates in the leaves! Needs high soil moisture, otherwise the plant will begin to stem.

The first harvest early varieties (tapa Matador) give already 40-45 days after germination. Sowing can be started already in mid-May directly into the ground, to a depth of 2,5 cm, row spacing of 25-30 cm. Seedlings are thinned, leaving 7-8 cm distances between plants. Overseeding can be carried out every two weeks all summer.

Spinach is good for early sowing because its seedlings can withstand frost, and early varieties yield a harvest in a month. You can sow it in the fall, collecting part of the crop in the same year, and get the second part in the spring.

Grades: Virofle, Stoic, Matador, Ispolinsky, Zhirnolistny, Sporter.