How to grow home grown salad crops for great freshness & flavour

Nothing beats the fresh taste of home grown vegetables and April is the perfect time to start creating a vegetable garden of your own.

It’s become ever more popular to grow your own fresh fruit and vegetables and this year for the first time Dobbies has seen vegetable seeds outsell flower seeds.

The health benefits of eating ‘five-a-day’ are undisputed and many believe that going organic means even fresher, more nutritious fruit and vegetables.  By growing plants free from artificial chemicals we can produce fruit and vegetables without worrying about the negatives effects to ourselves or the environment. 

Dobbies has a few tips to help you get stated and once you’ve mastered these you can experiment with a wider and increased range of vegetables each year.

Contain It
You don’t need a big garden.  A really practical way to grow edible crops is in containers, window boxes, grow bags and even hanging baskets.  You can then position your mini garden on a balcony, patio, porch or window sill.

Salad Days
Why not try growing delicious cut-and-come again salads.  Ideal for providing a succession of leaves, once you’ve tasted a home-grown lettuce, you’ll also never want to buy one again!

Suitable types to try include beetroot leaves, chard, chicory, Chinese cabbage, endive, kale, lettuces, pak choi radish leaves and spinach.

Choose a nice sunny spot with good drainage, avoiding windy areas or those with overhanging tree branches or hedges.

If you’re planting in a container a depth and width of at least 45cm is ideal or if you’re using a grow bag, simply cut a panel along the top to create a shallow bed.  Seeds should also be sown around 1cm apart then covered with compost and then water.  If you plant more densely, thin out later when your crop starts to grow so that each plant is around 2.5cm apart.  You can then use these plants to fill in any gaps.

Ongoing TLC
Weed, water and feed regularly as edible crops are especially hungry and thirsty when they’re growing.  Just give everything a good soak in the morning or evening when needed and feed your leafy crops every couple of weeks with a nitrogen-based fertiliser to help them thrive. 

If it gets a little frosty early in the season, protect your newly emerged plants by laying horticultural fleece over them or move your container to a better protected spot.  Although unlikely as your crop will grow so quickly, keep your eye out for any pests and diseases and treat immediately.  You local garden centre will be able to help you diagnose the problem and find a solution.

Reaping the Rewards
Gather leaves as soon as they are a good size with either scissors or by snapping off the outer leaves at roughly 2.5cm from the base.  Leaves will re-grow again from the base and you can get several crops from one plant.

If you want a continuous crop of leafy greens, sow into a new grow bag or container whenever your current crop is almost ready to pick.