Author’s note

I would never have imagined, when working on the first edition of The Salad Garden in the early 1980s, that I would be revising it again in 2016, in my eighties. What a thrill to find so many people, young and old, not just eating more salads, but discovering the joy and satisfaction of growing their own, marvelling at the taste of freshness and the diverse flavours and colours that can emerge from even a flower pot on a patio. And almost invariably, growing organically.

In the introduction to the 2001 edition (shown here) I outlined the journey salad growing has taken our family on, from an allotment plot to an experimental market garden with several little potagers in Suffolk. And now a new chapter has opened. In 2002 we uprooted ourselves to retire to County Cork in the south-west corner of Ireland. In the years since, our energies have been channelled into converting a windswept field into a fan-shaped potager. The final project – I promised my husband Don it would be the final project – was to make a small raised bed potager near the house. This has become our new salad garden.

Its core is two pairs of rectangular raised beds built from recycled plastic, 11/4m/4ft wide, 3m/10ft long and 75cm/30in high, so easily reached without bending down or kneeling. At either end two semi-circular, stone walled beds gently round off the area, with an irresistible stone seat set in each. All the beds are linked with rebar arches covered with sheep wire, where sweet peas, honeysuckle, climbing beans, pumpkins, blackberries and other fruit clamber. This is the setting for our salads. I love it.

We also grow salads in the small greenhouse attached to the house, mainly tomatoes in summer, and in winter seedling salads, oriental and Texsel greens, spinach and endives. It is always full.

The past thirty years have seen many changes in varieties available to home gardeners. In this new edition I’ve drawn on advice from knowledgeable specialists, and the trials carried out by the Royal Horticultural Society, to suggest the best of what is available for today’s salad growers. Where possible, I’ve included compact varieties bred for smaller gardens and containers, as well as varieties with decorative qualities. After all, salad plants have to feed the body and the spirit.