Eating a fresh salad straight from the garden is one of the easiest and quickest ways to make use of your home-grown produce. Seasonal salads can be simple. But they certainly do not have to be boring. 

There are numerous ways to make a fresh salad from the vegetables, fruits and herbs that you grow that are available throughout the year. Here is some inspiration to help you ring the changes when it comes to creating home-grown salads through the seasons.

Remember, Lettuce is Not the Only Leafy Green

If you want to create interesting salads from your garden throughout the year, don't just stick to lettuce. Embrace other seasonal leafy greens throughout the year. From other favorites like spinach, chard, and brassica leaves, to more unusual greens like malabar spinach, amaranth, orach and warringal greens... to a whole host of Asian greens... there are numerous options to consider.

Add Unusual Fruits To Your Leafy Greens

If you are one of those people for whom a salad is lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber, then it is time to branch out and discover just how much more a salad can be. Tomatoes and cucumbers are not the only fruits that you can add to leafy green vegetables in a salad. Top fruits and berries of all kinds can also make for some interesting and delicious flavor combinations.

Add Some Seeds For Nutrition and Texture

Roasted pumpkin or squash seeds, sunflower seeds, buckwheat seeds, chia seeds, poppy seeds and more can all be added to salads to liven things up. Collecting seeds from your garden could be a way to add extra nutrition to a salad, whether it is warm or cold. They can add extra bite and help make a salad more satisfying and filling as a main part of a meal, not just a side dish.

Add Flowers for Flavor and Color

When creating your salads, you should also remember that there are also a wide range of edible flowers that you might include, which taste good and look good too. You can include edible flowers from vegetable crops – like pea flowers, allium flowers, or squash flowers for example. You can also add flowers from plants used as companion crops In your garden.

Grow Grains and Pulses To Include

Growing grains and pulses like chickpeas, lentils, beans or peas can also help you to bulk out leafy crops and make salads more filling and substantial. Even if you don't have a lot of space to grow field crops on your property, you might consider growing grains like amaranth, or quinoa, for example, on a small scale.

Ferment Vegetables To Add Tang

Pickles and other fermented foods can also be added to salads to give them far more variety when it comes to taste. Pickling vegetables can not only help to preserve them, it can also bring variety to seasonal eating.

Make Home-Grown Salad Dressings

Another idea to help you maintain interest in seasonal salads is to make your own home-made salad dressing using the herbs, fruits or other plants you grow. You can make a range of different vinegars (such as an apple cider vinegar, for example) using produce you grow in your garden. You can also flavor vinegars and make infused vinegars using a range of different fruits, vegetables and herbs. 

You might also make mustards, or make pesto's to add to your salads using basil and garlic, or a range of other herbs and flavor combinations.