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Gathering all the ingredients for a fresh salad from your garden is a real treat. There are so many types of greens to grow that give you much more variety than what you’d find in a grocery store. With your own garden bed, you can grow the greens you actually like to eat.
Most greens like cool weather, and a common mistake is planting once in spring, taking one big harvest, and then watching the bed turn bitter and bolt as soon as summer hits. The way to keep greens coming from spring through fall is to sow a little at a time and move to different greens as the seasons change.
Check out the incredible variety of salad greens in our store! - Salad Greens at Isla Seeds
The Best Greens To Grow For A Salad Garden
Some greens are far easier than others, but most are generally easy to grow. They don’t usually need a lot of attention, just the right weather where they can thrive.
Easiest Greens To Grow:
- leaf lettuce
- arugula
- spinach
- bok choy
- mizuna
- tatsoi
- kale
These all germinate fast and can tolerate less-than-perfect conditions. Loose-leaf lettuces are more forgiving than the tight-headed types like romaine and iceberg. These take more time to grow and need specific conditions to form a proper head. The garden favorite, arugula, is close to foolproof and ready to eat in three weeks after planting. Growing spinach is a little bit trickier since it is fussy about heat and will bolt earlier than the others, but it is a great early-spring and fall crop.
Why Greens Slow Down When It Gets Hot
Most salad greens grow best when the temperature is between 60 and 70°F. Once it gets hotter than that, the plants stop putting out leaves and start trying to flower and set seed. This is called bolting. The plant grows a tall stalk from the middle, the leaves turn bitter, and the soft texture of the greens disappears. This is normal and happens because the plants are racing to make seed before the season ends.
The Salad Garden Secret: Succession Planting
Instead of sowing a whole packet of seeds at once, sow a short row every two to three weeks. Each small planting matures on its own schedule, so as one batch gets harvested or starts to fade, the next is coming up right behind it.
Most beginners plant everything at once because it feels efficient and it makes sense. The problem is that it ends up all ready to harvest in the same week, and you’ll end up buried in lettuce for a few days, then staring at a bare bed for the rest of the season.
What to do: Sow a small amount of seed every two to three weeks starting in early spring. For most households, a row a few feet long is sufficient. Once that row is up and growing, sow the next one. This staggered approach keeps a steady supply coming instead of one big harvest followed by a bare bed.
Spring Salad Planting
Spring is prime time for growing greens. The soil is cool, the days are mild, and the plants will grow quickly without much fuss.
What to do: Start sowing as soon as the soil can be worked in early spring, even while the nights are still cold. Most greens will germinate in 40°F soil, and a light frost won't kill established seedlings of hardy types like spinach, kale, and arugula. Get the first sowing in early, then keep the succession going every couple of weeks.
Summer Salad Planting
As the days lengthen and temperatures rise, the cool-season greens will start bolting. Lettuce and spinach, in particular, will bolt quickly as soon as the weather heats up.
What to do: Switch to heat-tolerant greens for the hottest stretch of summer. Some greens hold up far better than lettuce in summer, including amaranth, Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, and many of the spicier Asian mustards. These keep producing edible leaves even when other greens have long since bolted.
Another option is to keep the bed cool for the salad greens. You can plant the greens in a place with partial afternoon shade, whether from a shade cloth, being on the east side of a building, or underneath taller plants. This helps them stay cooler and not bolt so quickly. Cooler soil also helps with germination, since lettuce seed often won’t sprout once the soil temperature is above 75°F.
If you'd rather not fight summer at all, that's an option, too. Many gardeners let the salad bed rest through the worst of the heat and put their energy into the crops that actually want hot weather, like tomatoes and peppers, then come back to greens in late summer.
Fall Salad Planting
Fall might be the most underrated time for greens; many think it beats spring outright. While spring greens quickly bolt as the days warm, fall greens love the cooler, shorter days and stay sweet and tender for a long stretch. A light frost actually improves the flavor of many greens, including spinach, kale, and mâche.
What to do: Start your fall greens in late summer, while it's still hot out. This may feel wrong, since you're sowing cool-season crops in the heat, but the plants need time to grow a little before the days get shorter and growth slows. Count back about eight weeks from your first expected frost and start sowing then.
After planting, keep the soil moist and give the plants some shade while they germinate. The warmth of late-summer soil is still too much for lettuce seed, and it won’t sprout unless it’s shaded. Cold-hardy greens like spinach, kale, mâche, and tatsoi aren’t too bothered by frost and keep going well into late fall. They can even grow into winter under a row cover or in a cold frame.
How to Harvest So the Plant Keeps Giving
Most loose-leaf greens regrow after being cut. This means that one plant can be harvested many times if you gather the leaves properly.
What to do: Pick the outer leaves only and leave the center alone. The plant grows from its center, so as long as you take the older outer leaves and leave the young growth in the middle, it'll keep producing new leaves for weeks. This is called cut-and-come-again, and it makes every planting last much longer than if you pulled up entire plants. The best time to harvest is in the morning when the leaves are crisp and full of water.