The change can be quite dramatic. This week I planted out some Lollo rossa lettuce and within three days the pale green leaves had turned a healthy rosy rust colour. They went into a new small bed into which I have sown a row of Florence Fennel, some Rocket, some Hamburg Parsley and a row of Lambs lettuce. As well as providing delicious aniseed flavoured bulbs in autumn Fennel leaves can be used to garnish food, and the seeds have an intense, concentrated liquorice flavour. It also gives off a nice aroma when brushed.
Rocket is a very fast growing salad vegetable, grown for the rich flavoured leaves.
The flavour grows on you, and not many leaves are required in a mixed salad. It is ready to harvest four weeks after sowing, so regular re-sowing is required for a continuous crop, especially since it runs to seed remarkably quickly. Like the Lolla rossa the leaves are picked from the plant as required. Lambs lettuce, or corn salad as it is sometimes known, is in a similar category and complements Rocket well. I grow a number of hardy annuals in individual three inch pots rather than sowing direct in the ground because management is much easier, particularly when it comes to weeding.