Collection: Salad Plants

Salad plants can be planted outdoors from around early spring for a summer crop, or early autumn for a winter and spring crop. Avoid planting them at the height of summer though, as the hot weather can make them bolt. They’re relatively fast growing, so if you plant them in succession you can have fresh salads pretty much all year round.

Salad plants can be grown very successfully indoors, especially during the winter. Make sure your containers are in a sunny, well lit place such as a windowsill, heated conservatory or under grow lights.

Most salad plants grow best in full sun or partial shade, with at least four to six hours of sunlight per day.

The best soil for salad plants is a well draining, fertile and loamy soil with plenty of compost or well rotted manure mixed in. If you have clay or sandy soil you can still grow salads, by mixing organic matter into your soil or growing in pots of compost.

Salad plants tend to have shallow roots and so they need to be watered frequently. Water deeply whenever the soil starts looking dry, usually once or twice a week or more in hot weather.

Depending on the variety and growing conditions, most salad plants will be ready for harvesting as soon as three to four weeks after planting. For large lettuces or spinach, it’s more like six to eight weeks. Can I harvest salad plants multiple times in the UK? Lots of salad plants can be picked repeatedly by cutting the outer leaves when they’re needed, allowing the centre of the plant to keep growing. This also encourages the plant to produce more leaves.