Salad Baby Leaves Rainbow Beet Mixed

These mini plants in red, yellow, orange, pink and gold are seldom recognized in a salad - always admired nonetheless. Mild flavoured, juicy and tender. If grown on to maturity the thick stems and crinkly foliage can be cooked like Spinach.

How to Grow Salad Leaves from Seed

Growing your own mixed Salad Leaves will ensure a fresh supply of tender leaves for a fraction of the cost of bagged salads. ‘Cut and Come Again’ varieties are especially good and ensure the longest, steadiest supply of young leaves throughout the growing season, try sowing small batches of seed every two weeks until late August.

Growing salad leaves under glass or plastic, allows crops germinate and establish more quickly early in the year and prolongs cropping into autumn and early winter. A coldframe, greenhouse, cloche, poly-tunnel or even fleece protection will help to extend the growing season.

Cut and come again leafy salad vegetables are suitable for growing in the open vegetable gardens or in containers.

Most salad leaf mixes can be sown between March and October. If you are sowing outside directly into the soil, first prepare the ground and rake it to a fine finish then make shallow trenches about 1.5cm deep, water the trench to moisten the soil then spread the seed thinly along the bottom before lightly covering the seed.
Alternatively, to sow in indoors, fill pots or trays with compost then firm down and moisten before scattering the seed thinly across the surface.

Once the seedlings are about 2cm tall, thin them out to give them space to grow, the distance needed will vary depending on varieties being grown.

Most salad leaf mixes will be ready for picking 21 days after sowing. Keep plants well watered and harvest the outside leaves regularly to ensure a constant supply. Mature plants can be harvested by pulling up the entire plant before trimming off the stem with a knife. Once plants start to flower, put them in the compost bin as leaves will become bitter.