Leafy veg and salad leaves prefer cool, shady spots and grow well in pots or in a trough, so they’re ideal for shady balconies and small gardens.
You can sow the seeds directly into your pot, and vary the leaves to suit your own tastes. Discover more vegetable crops to grow in shade.
Keep picking and watering the plants, and you should be able to pick them again several times. From late summer, sow winter salads such as oriental greens and grow beetroot for leaves.
Discover how to plant a quick-growing salad container, below.
You Will Need
- Texsel greens (6)
- Komatsuna (6)
- Mustard 'Green in Snow' (6)
- Kale 'Red Russian' (3)
- Radicchio 'Palla Rossa' (3)
- Beetroot 'Bulls Blood' (6)
- Trough, or large pot
Step 1
Fill the pot with multi-purpose compost and water well – you need to be sowing onto damp soil.
Step 2
Scatter a few inches of each type of seed generously right across the compost to create a mix of colour, taste and texture.
Step 3
Cover lightly with compost. Water daily, using a fine rose on the watering can, and seedlings should appear in about 10 days.
Winter salads to sow in summer
- Pak choi
- Corn salad
- Lettuce
- Komatsuna
- Winter hardy spring onion ‘White Lisbon’
- Mustard