Fill grow bags with salads right now for a steady supply of delicious leaves throughout the summer. It’s easy to grow the freshest salad leaves yourself even if all you have is a patio: all you need is a grow bag or two from the garden centre here plus a selection of your favourite salad seeds. Ideal crops for growing bags include lettuce, rocket and radishes but also more unusual salad ingredients like beetroot, chard, coriander and red kale. Or you can take the easy option and choose a packet of blended baby-leaf salads instead.
Growing salads in grow bags
Plump up your grow bag to loosen the compost before putting it in a sheltered spot outdoors in sun or part shade, preferably near the house so you can pick leaves as you need them.
Sow seeds in rows a finger’s width apart, starting with a short row and adding extra rows at two-week intervals (a technique known as successional sowing which gives you a steady supply of leaves till autumn). Once the first batch of leaves reach about 10cm long, snip them away with scissors about 2cm above the compost and they should resprout three or four times. Once they’ve finished, simply clear them and resow straight away.
