Priya Mehta
Why salad leaves earn their space
If you have a windowsill, a balcony or a corner of a small back garden, salad leaves are the best value crop you can grow. They are quick, forgiving and can be harvested when the leaves are barely a few centimetres long, which means you do not need the deep soil or long season that carrots or brassicas demand. A packet of seed costing a couple of pounds will give you dozens of cuttings over a season — far more than the equivalent spend on plastic bags of washed leaves from the supermarket.
The trick is the cut-and-come-again method. Rather than waiting for a lettuce to heart up, you snip the young leaves and let the plant regrow. In warm weather you can be eating your first crop four to six weeks after sowing, and many varieties will give you three or four cuts before they run out of steam.
Choosing what to sow
Almost anything leafy works, but some are far better suited to a small plot than others. Look for loose-leaf types and avoid anything described as "hearting" or "cos" unless you have space to spare.
- Loose-leaf lettuce — 'Salad Bowl', 'Lollo Rossa' and 'Green Oakleaf' are reliable, colourful and slow to bolt. Pick a mix for variety.
- Rocket — wild rocket is slower to run to seed than the salad type and has a sharper, more peppery kick.
- Spinach and perpetual spinach — generous croppers that keep going through cooler weather.
- Mustard 'Red Giant' and mizuna — quick, spicy and handsome in a pot together.
- Pak choi and chard — excellent for baby leaves, and chard will crop well into autumn.
- Corn salad (lamb's lettuce) — sow in late summer for winter picking when little else is growing.
Mixing seed in a bowl and scattering it loosely gives you a cut-and-come-again blend without buying three separate packets. Just remember that rocket and mustard grow faster than lettuce, so keep the proportions modest.
Where to grow them
Salad leaves are shallow-rooted, so you do not need deep containers. A pot or trough 15cm deep is plenty, though 20cm gives you more leeway on watering. Old recycling boxes, wooden crates and grow bags all work, as long as you drill or check for drainage holes first. Standing water is the quickest way to lose a crop.
Fill with multipurpose compost, breaking up any lumps and firming it gently. Leave a 2cm gap below the rim so you can water without washing the compost over the edge. If you are using garden soil, mix it half and half with compost and sieve out stones.
A spot that gets morning sun and afternoon shade is ideal. Salad leaves tolerate light shade far better than tomatoes or courgettes, so a north-facing balcony or a corner behind a fence is perfectly usable. In the heat of July and August, some shade actually helps — it keeps leaves tender and delays bolting.
Sow little and often
This is the single most useful habit in small-space growing. One big sowing gives you a glut followed by nothing; a small pinch every two or three weeks gives you a steady supply from spring right through to autumn.
Sow thinly, aiming for a seed every couple of centimetres. Cover with about 1cm of compost, firm gently and water with a fine rose so you do not disturb the seed. Germination takes seven to fourteen days depending on temperature. Once the seedlings are up, thin them to around 5cm apart for baby leaves, or 15cm if you want larger individual plants. The thinnings are edible — rinse and add them to a sandwich.
Start under cover in February or March, move outdoors from late March, and keep sowing until late August for autumn crops. On a bright windowsill you can grow baby leaves all winter, though growth slows noticeably in December and January. A cloche or a fleece-covered frame will buy you several extra weeks at either end of the season.
Cutting and keeping the crop coming
Harvest when leaves are 8–10cm tall, using scissors to snip about 2–3cm above the compost. Never take more than a third of the plant at once — leave the growing point intact and it will push out fresh leaves within a fortnight.
Keep the compost consistently moist rather than soaking it. Little and often applies to watering too. After the second cut, give a weak liquid feed every couple of weeks to keep leaves sweet rather than tough. In hot spells, move containers into afternoon shade and water in the morning so foliage dries before evening.
Troubles worth knowing about
- Slugs and snails — the main threat to young seedlings. Check pots at dusk with a torch, use copper tape around rims, or set a beer trap nearby.
- Flea beetle — riddles rocket and mustard with small holes in early summer. Enclosing crops in fine mesh helps, and sowings made after mid-August usually escape damage.
- Bolting — plants shoot up and turn bitter in heat or drought. Choose bolt-resistant varieties, water regularly and provide afternoon shade.
- Aphids — often on the underside of leaves. A firm jet of water dislodges them without chemicals.
- Damping off — seedlings collapse at the base in cold, wet, airless conditions. Sow thinly, water sparingly and keep containers ventilated.
With a few pots, a packet of mixed seed and a fortnightly pinch of sowing, you can keep a bowl of fresh leaves on the table from April to November — and rather longer than that if you are willing to bring a container indoors.
