Grace your summer food with healthy alternatives. Words and pictures by VAL BOURNE

I was definitely trained in the hedonistic school of gardening the one for people who enjoy life's pleasures. One of the greatest is picking summer salad for supper, confident in the knowledge that there are no chemical additions.

Years ago the only thing on offer were hearting lettuces and they all arrived at once. Your neighbours were delighted, but your own salad season was over in a blink.

Though I still grow some hearting lettuce Little Gem, a small lettuce with a good flavour is still my preferred choice I mainly opt for loose-leaf lettuces that don't heart up. They give you months of leaf and I've never had an early bolter, one that shoots into flower and becomes bitter. You can go out and pick a handful from these leafy lettuces and they come in a variety of colours and leaf-shape, forming a handsome, edible tapestry. The mixture of verdant red and green varies between oak-shaped and frizzled.

Leafy lettuce is a perfect foil for orange, red and yellow nasturtiums and African marigolds (Tagetes patula). The nasturtiums have edible flowers which you can add in to, or shred, into a salad. The bright-orange petals of pot marigold (calendula) can also be used in salads and cakes. Good varieties of summer loose-leaf lettuce include Salad Bowl' and Oak Leaf', but there are also winter loose-leaves to explore.

African marigolds are a good partner for lettuce. The pungent smell from their foliage deters aphids and other small pests above ground, but these small-flowered, short marigolds also exude a chemical below ground which keeps soil-based pests, like rootfly larva, eelworms and nematodes, at bay. The African marigolds also attract every slug and helps to prevent damage to precious runner beans. Once a slug nips out the growing point of a bean it's a "gonner".

Salad leaves are suitable for small spaces. You can grow five plants in a trough, container, window box or put them in the front of the flower border and they generally persist long enough to accompany your home-grown tomatoes. One of the great frustrations of gardening is that hearting lettuce tend to be over early. Loose-leaf lettuce can survive August and late-sown plants can last through September.

You can raise lettuce from seed, but nowadays, it's possible to buy young plants as well. Waterperry Gardens, near Wheatley, sell a much fuller range and there's a new allotment there too, planted by children from Ickford School. Another company, Delfland Nurseries, is selling organic vegetable plants that can be delivered to your door.

Suppliers: The Organic Gardening Catalogue Tel: 0845 130 1304 www.organiccatalogue.com Waterperry Gardens Tel: 01844 339226 www.waterperrygardens.co.uk Delflland Nurseries (mail order) Tel: 01345 740553 www.organicplants.co.uk

GOOD READ The Greenhouse Gardener by Anne Swithinbank, Frances Lincoln, £19.99.

Anne Swithinbank used to be the glasshouse supervisor at Wisley and this book features her own garden, plus others, and is photographed by her husband, John. It is full of wise advice on a subject rarely covered an indispensable addition for any gardener.