GARDEN YOUR WAY TO SALAD SATISFACTION.

Byline: Paul Wills Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

Growing a personalized salad garden as winter tapers off is a natural for gardeners with little space or time.

It takes only a moderate amount of labor, to grow your own makings for green salads better than any you would find in a restaurant.

Unlike most gardens, the salad garden doesn't need full sun; four to six hours a day will do, or even less if the shade is light and broken. A plot of ground no larger that 10 square feet will grow enough fresh salad ingredients for the entire family.

Growing the vegetables is simple and the harvest can begin within four weeks.

The French have a word for mixed salad greens: mesclun - familiar vegetables like lettuce, mustard, cress, plus several others that we rarely grow, such as mache, mizuna, arugula and some of the Oriental mustards. In France, they adjust the mix in the salad bowl to personal tastes. But all the salad makings are harvested as tender, young greens and are served while absolutely fresh.

For maximum flavor, salad greens must be grown rapidly in rich, airy soil which has enough organic matter to hold moisture but drain away excess water that would stunt or kill the roots. Plants that have to struggle in the garden are almost certainly going to be tough and bitter.

Before planting any seeds, cultivate the selected spot about 10 inches deep, till in a 3-inch layer of well-rotted plant material such as dry peat or compost, if you can get it, and a sprinkling of 10-10-10 fertilizer. Water well if the soil is dry, wait about a week and then plant the seeds of cool-weather crops.

Leaf lettuces such as black-seeded Simpson will grow just about anywhere; Bibb or butterhead lettuces with their soft, wide leaves are good choices. So is romaine, which is small.

I'd want little round, red radishes in my salad garden, both for their color and the unique bite they add to the mixture. They can be grown to harvest size in just 28 days or less. Young radish leaves are candidates for the salad bowl, too.