Lettuce & Salad Crops


Every kitchen garden, whether a full-size allotment or a handful of pots, should include lettuce.

 

Fast-maturing, undemanding and requiring very little space, they come in an astonishing variety of leaf shapes, colour and textures, offering an almost year-round salad source.

 

 

Example pic

 

Lettuces can be sown in-between taller-growing veg and make a useful quick-growing filler after a main vegetable crop has been lifted.

 

Sow them sparingly every couple of weeks throughout the spring and summer months to ensure a steady supply.

 

Also consider growing rocket and other salad leaves. Rocket is delicious served simply with parmesan and black pepper, so why not give it a go?

 

Sow the seeds thinly from April to September directly into fine soil or on your windowsill through the winter. Protect your outdoor rocket seeds from pests. Seeds will germinate very quickly so water them each day and pick the young, tender leaves regularly to avoid the crop flowering and going to seed. For a continuous supply make a sowing every two weeks.

 

Rocket also grows well in pots. Sowing thinly into a good organic, peat free compost to produce young, tender leaves. Place pots on a windowsill or in a cool greenhouse. Direct sowing into the beds in a greenhouse will extend the growing season and offer the added protection from flea beetle attack.