5 Tips to Growing Your Own Salad Greens

In continuation of the tips promised from my previous article “Growing Your Own Food”, here are my tips for growing your own lettuce or salad greens. This one is going to be short and only 5 tips. I am in no way a professional gardener and so I always recommend to do your research and also check what garden zone you live in. I live in zone 9b, and these are tips that have worked for me. I have grown lettuce and salad greens both indoor, in ground, in pots and in dirt bags. I highly recommend an Aerogarden if you would like to grow indoor. It will not get you to where you are eating salad greens daily, but it will get you to a point where you are at least eating them once or twice a week. They have different options for how many pods you can buy, so you could potentially do more than the 6 pod Aerogarden and possibly get greens more than once to twice a week. They also have kits for growing tomatoes, peppers and herbs in them and are definitely worth checking out. OK, so lets dive into the five tips for growing your own salad greens.

1. Harvest baby greens vs heads when doing lettuce. You will get a much faster harvest time by doing this and in my opinion, I feel like I definitely got more salad meals doing it this way. It is just 2 of us in my household (and we are way out numbered by furry friends for sure) and we are able to get to a point where we are eating salad greens nightly and sometimes even taking a salad provided from the garden for lunches. For those of you who have not been following along, I live in a small urban house, with a small urban yard, so even if you think you don't have the space to do so, you can! Even if all you grow are your salad greens, that is still something incredible. The feeling you will get from knowing that part of the meal you are eating and feeding your family was grown by you is unmatched. Knowing that there is nothing harmful in what you are eating and knowing the process it took to get to your table is so beyond rewarding. It saves money and the salad greens will taste better than anything you have ever bought in the store, you may never want store bought greens again!

2. In my experience I have come to find that some shade actually does best. Too much sun can wilt your leaves and cause them to taste bitter. I have found that providing an area that is part shade or even indirect sunlight or where a shadow is cast gives me a longer growing season with my salad greens. I do not know if that would be the same for colder climates since the soil could potentially be too cold and stunt growth. Again, I urge you to look into what your gardening zone is. Where I placed my bag is in an area that has direct sunlight but because it is up against my fence, the fence provides a shade cast over my bag and that has turned out to be the best spot I have found.

3. I really am trying to grow as much as I can in a small space and have seen many gardeners via YouTube or Instagram use just a bag of dirt laid flat with a square cut off the whole top layer of it and holes poked on the bottom to provide drainage. (Drainage is so important so don't miss that step if using the bag of dirt method). A really great video that does a really great job explaining this method that you can look up on YouTube is by my favorite YouTuber and gardener Jessica Sowards of Roots and Refuge Farm. If you have never seen any of her videos I highly suggest you check her out. The video she has titled “Grow Winter Greens All Winter For Less Than 20 Dollars” is the video where she give a really good detailed description on how to grow salad greens right out of the bag of dirt you buy from the store. My one bag that is pictured on the table in my feature photo for this article gave me the ability for two to eat salad twice a day around 3 or 4 times a week for 6 months. You will also notice that you get full a whole lot faster from the salad greens you grow yourself because they are going to have quite a bit more nutrients in them than what you are able to buy at the store. I actually have been reusing the same bag of dirt every year for 3 years now as well. I know many of you seasoned gardeners may cringe at that, but I do keep the soil well mended and it has been working so why not? It saves money and space, so it is a great option for small space gardens or beginning gardeners.

4. When you get your bag of seeds be to spread the seeds all over the bag. When sowing this way there is no need to follow the spacing guidelines because are there for people who are letting their lettuce completely mature into a full head of lettuce before they harvest. I like to use many different greens in my bag such as different lettuce varieties, arugula, mustard greens, kale, sorrel and my personal favorite lettuce leaf basil. If you have never had basil in your salad, give it a try, it adds a wonderful and unique fresh flavor and make sure to add new seeds when areas are running out. Lettuce leaf basil has the same basil flavor you are used to, but in a large lettuce style leave with an amazing texture that adds a serious pop to any salad. I get my lettuce leaf basil from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at rareseeds.com. They also send a free seed package with every order which is very exciting!

5. The last tip I have is to keep your soil moist with a good consistent feeding and watering schedule. I dilute my feed and actually feed once a week in the evenings and water every other day using just the mist setting on y sprayer for around 1 minute. I try to keep it as consistent as possible because I noticed in times where I was less consistent my baby greens were much less lush and vibrant, but as soon as I came up with a consistent schedule I noticed quite the difference. Because they are all leafy greens I also go a little higher on my nitrogen than I normally would on other plants to get more abundance since nitrogen encourages more leaf growth.

So these are the suggestions I have from my own personal experience with growing salad greens. Make sure to periodically add more seeds as areas begin to become bare so that you always have a constant flow of baby greens to harvest as well. If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer any of them if you want to reach out to me on Instagram or Twitter @Garden4Solace. I will also be sharing some tips and photos periodically so please head on over there and give me a follow and say hello! I am by no means a garden pro, so I would love it if you would share your suggestions with me as well! If you are reading this article on Vocal and enjoyed it, consider leaving a tip to help support my urban farm! Wishing you a happy, healthy and wonderfully abundant gardening year.