Late-summer salad can be just an arm's length away on patio

Cooking on the patio or terrace can be even more fun when you've added some edibles to containers.

Plantings started now — following these hints below — will be ready in time for fall harvest.

Container type

Choose a large container, at least 12 inches across. If it has held flowers or bulbs, dump the soil out and fluff it. Then refill the container, adding a little new potting soil to about 2 inches from the top, then water thoroughly. Stir the soil to be sure moisture is even. Garden soil doesn't work; you need potting soil for good drainage.

Starting from seeds

You can sow many leafy munchables now for the seeds to emerge and reach pickable size in 30 to 40 days, just in time for Labor Day feasting.

Visualize the bin full of delicious-looking "salad mix" sold by the pound in your grocery store. That's what we're planting now. The sooner you start, the better the results.

Seed types: Check nursery shelves now, and be sure to get seeds packed for 2007. Lettuce seeds do not grow well if they've been stored too long. Choose mesclun mix or salad-blend mix — a combination of variously hued salad-bowl components. Or buy several packets of different types, such as red lettuce, romaine and buttercrunch, creating your own mixture. These likely won't yield big heads of lettuce, but small, harvestable plants.

Now scatter the seeds. Lettuce seeds need very shallow planting, with just a whisper of soil over the seeds because many of the types — especially those with white seeds — require a flash of light to germinate. Water them and keep them moist as they emerge. A dried-out seedling is a dead seedling.

In a pot, you don't have room for tidy rows, and the jumble of seedlings can be thinned and eaten. Manicure scissors make picking them easy.

Looking for plants

For a great addition to your cooking supplies, find plants at nurseries in the herb section. The smaller the plants, the better they will do. Put four plants in a 12-inch pot. You'll have fresh greenery to pick again and again through winter.

In the "McGee and Stuckey's Bountiful Container" book by Rose Marie Nichols and Maggie Stuckey (Workman Publishing Co., 2002), they suggest trying "chopped fresh parsley as a flavor booster instead of salt." Parsley is difficult to start from seed, so plants are helpful.

Cool-weather edibles

Winter vegetable gardening thrives in the maritime Northwest, with cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, onions and peas planted in July for spring harvests.

Nurseries often sell intriguing selections of small vegetable plants, so rummage around and find Chinese cabbage, endive, garden cress or chard for your containers.

Last fall, I planted a container of 'Rainbow' Swiss chard. Brilliant gold, red and purple stems with green leaves persisted all winter, even through freezing temperatures.

Even if the plants you choose don't mature fully, you'll have fresh-tasting salad and stir-fry nibbles.

And if you don't at this exact moment have a vegetable garden in full swing, you can still plan and plant now for a late harvest.

Two warnings:

Slugs will slither happily onto the scene looking for fresh greens. Pick them off by hand or sprinkle a low-toxicity slug bait such as Sluggo on the ground around the pots (Not in the pots).

Also, container plants need care. Start these when you'll be present to keep them watered, not just before scooting off on vacation. Parsley, chard and lettuce can be planted through September.

Garden expert Mary Robson, retired area horticulture agent for Washington State University/King County Cooperative Extension, appears regularly in digs and in Practical Gardener in Northwest Life on Wednesdays. Her e-mail is marysophia@olympus.net.