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Plant out lettuce There's no secret to growing salad crops - just keep planting a little and often and you'll guarantee yourself continuous fresh leaves to add crunch and flavour to your meals. Homegrown salads are tastier, too, than anything you

to harvest in just 15 days, after the first cotyledon leaves have emerged. They may be grown all year round, have an intense flavour, and are easy to grow. 'Bright and Spicy' micro greens mix includes pak choi and red amaranth leaves.Micro greens salad

It is much maligned, but I rather like it. It has a little fire to its breath, adding 'zing' to salads, and perking up sandwiches. No, I'm not thinking of any trendy leaves from a supermarket 'luxury range', or from a delicatessen. I'm thinking

Finish planting out vegetable crops, including tomatoes, beans, courgettes and sweetcornSow summer salads in guttering to grow quick cropsUse netting to protect developing and ripening fruits from birdsTie in new shoots on blackberries, raspberries

but always grow old favourites like 'Lollo Rosso', a cut-and-come-again type which keeps going forever in a cool summer like this. I love 'Little Gem' - one little lettuce makes a perfect salad for two, and I've grown the beautiful, wine-red 'Pandero

I'm sure there has been research done on how the colour of food affects our attitude to it. If it looks good then it hopefully tastes good too, but who wants to eat blue potatoes, purple carrots or orange cauliflowers?When it comes to salads I want

When growing edible crops, it is essential to use your plot efficiently, especially if space is limited. It’s no good growing an unusual variety with a tiny yield if it takes up space that could be used for a more productive crop – particularly

Chickweed, Stellaria media, is best thought of as a delicious rather than a pernicious weed. Its young leaves are packed with vitamins, so it makes a healthy addition to salads. However, it can also harbour greenfly and spider mite, so remove

and other crops to keep them growing stronglyStop cutting asparagus by the end of June to allow the ferns to formThin out heavy gooseberry crops by removing the smallest fruits, and use these for cookingMake successional sowings of salad leaves and radishes

Shorten sideshoots growing from the framework of espalier, fan and cordon-trained fruit trees back to about five leaves from their basePick fresh herbs for dryingPick gooseberries, currants, strawberries and other fruits as they ripenSupport heavily