There is a lot of publicity regarding eating five a day and the food pyramid.  Getting the five a day fresh fruit and vegetables can be really tough on the pocket in these increasingly expensive times.  One of the easiest ways to start growing your own contribution to these five a day is to start to grow your own varieties of salad leaves. A bonus is also the fact that you can harvest and revisit the plants, sometimes these are referred as ‘cut and come again’ varieties. 

Growing your own salad leaves is one of the easiest, economical and quickest crops to grow. You can cut as much or as little as you need, when you need it with no more waste.  As you are picking and eating them in a short time frame all those lovely vitamins and goodness are still in the leaves.

Where Can I Grow My Salad Leaves?

Salad leaves can be sown on a small scale in a window box, containers, garden borders or vegetable plots. They are shallow rooted so are ideally suited if you have only a small window box or container. Remember to water regularly if you are container growing, they can dry out really easily or a warm spring and hot summers day.

Harvesting your crop.

Plants are ready to harvest just a few weeks after sowing. Start to harvest them when the leaves are a few inches high. Use a pair of scissors to chop the leaves cleanly off about an inch above the ground. I start at one end of the plot, and systematically work my way along the row, this means that I have some regrowth at the start of the row by the time I reach the end. You can cut the same plants several times before they are worn out.