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Extension for Real Life Blog

Prepare for Spring: Build Your Salad Table Now

Close-up of a young leafy green vegetable plant growing in a salad table with other herbs and marigolds.

If you are planning for your vegetable garden this spring, a salad table or two might be in order. Salad tables are a great addition to a traditional vegetable garden or wonderful on their own.
 

Close-up of a young leafy green vegetable plant growing in a salad table with other herbs and marigolds.
​(Photo by Kevin Hudson)

The elevated tables, also called kitchen tables, can benefit anyone, including those with limited mobility or someone with limited space who wants to grow a few vegetables or herbs.
 
The tables have become a popular project for the Pine Belt Master Gardeners, who built two tables as an educational project at the MSU Extension office in Lamar County in 2013. As of Dec. 21, 2017, the group has constructed and donated 670 tables and taught people to use them. Tables built by the group are in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Virginia and Illinois.
 

Alt-text: A woman stables hardware cloth to the wooden frame of a salad table while another woman helps hold the cloth in place.
Margaret Thomas and Vicky Foster, both Pine Belt Master Gardeners, staple hardware cloth to the bottom of a salad table during a workday in Purvis June 19, 2014. Many of these tables were donated to non-profit organizations, nursing homes and community gardens. (Photo by Susan Collins-Smith)

They were awarded the Outstanding Project Award at the 2014 Mississippi Master Gardener Conference for the work they have done with the raised beds. They also won second place in the 2015 International Master Gardener Search for Excellence Program.
 
Check out this Extension Matters story about how salad tables helped Hattiesburg resident Jim Murray continue gardening after health issues prevented him from digging in the dirt.

The group has donated tables to Ruth’s Roots, a rehabilitation garden for nonviolent juvenile drug offenders in Hancock County. Read the Extension Matters story about the work Elise Deano is doing with this community garden.
 
Get detailed instructions for building your own salad tables here.
 
Learn more about the Master Gardener program here.
 

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Mississippi State University Extension 130 Bost Drive Mississippi State MS 39762

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