Salad leaves are incredibly easy to grow as they do not need lots of room and will be happy in a pot on the patio, or even in a hanging basket by the back door.
When you grow your own salad leaves, you have so much more choice than the selection offered in a supermarket bag of mixed leaves. You can sow lettuce, golden purslane, red orach, land cress, tree spinach, endive, lamb’s lettuce, rocket, or radicchio.
Growing salad leaves is gratifying as they are a quick cropping harvest, being ready to chop in a matter of weeks from sowing.
For harvesting, use your fingers or a pair of scissors to cut off the outer leaves, those left behind will continue to grow. If you need a bigger plateful, give the whole plant a haircut, and then water the remaining shoots. Apply liquid feed afterwards to encourage faster growth.
Once cut, simply give the leaves a gentle rinse in cold water and they are ready for the plate.
Growing your own salad leaves means there are no nasty pesticide sprays in sight and no plastic wrapping used to transport the produce hundreds of miles.
You should get around three croppings for each salad sowing, so for a continual supply all summer long, sow a few seeds little and often, and eat well this summer.