Bags of salad leaves ready-to-use are some of the first things you see in the supermarket fruit and veg sections when you stroll in – all year round they are there.
GYO salad
But now is the perfect time to sow and grow your own salad leaves, cut and come again Lettuce or Wild Rocket. You can grow these in a small patch of garden, raised bed or Veg Trug, in a growbag or tub on your patio or balcony. They can also be grown on kitchen windowsills.
How to GYO salad
Follow the instructions on the seed packets and sow one new batch every two weeks from now until September.
You can sow directly into the container you want them to grow in or sow some in a small seed tray or pot and then transplant into their final position once they have germinated and are large enough to handle.
This should give you a steady supply of salad leaves throughout the summer and into autumn. Each new sowing will give a new fresh growth of tender, juicy leaves, which can be snipped off from the base of the plant when needed using scissors or you can pinch off individual leaves as you need them.
Remember to keep your salad leaves well-watered especially during dry periods.
Other options
Many other herbs and salad crops can also be grown in confined spaces like this including beetroot, spring onions and radish so don’t be put off if you don’t have a veg bed. But for those with larger gardens or allotments the succession sowing technique mentioned above will serve you equally well in your plots.