How To Grow Salad Greens Year Round
How much do you enjoy a good fresh salad? You can grow your own Salad Bowl Garden year-round and have a never-ending supply of salad greens.
It is possible to have a never-ending supply of salad greens year-round if you are willing to put in a little work on the front end of growing your own salad greens. You can grow lettuce and other salad fixings year-round. It requires some strategic planning.
Succession planting both outside in the Spring and Fall and inside during the heat of the Summer will keep you in a never-ending supply of homegrown lettuce and other salad greens.
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Table of Contents
- What is salad bowl gardening?
- Succession Planting for Salad Greens Year Round
- When To Plant Lettuce
- Harvesting Salad Greens Year Round
- Timing Your Succession Planting
- Learn More About Salad Bowl Container Gardening
What is salad bowl gardening?
Growing lettuce and other salad greens and salad fixings in one container is known as salad bowl gardening. You can grow multiple types of lettuce and microgreens in one container if you like.
Succession Planting for Salad Greens Year Round
Begin by planting your first Salad Bowl Garden and let it grow for about two weeks. You can plant in a window box planter like this one.
Then set up your next salad bowl to grow. Those two salad bowls will produce lettuce regularly but if you are super serious about your salad greens and you have the space, you can follow with a third one about two weeks after you plant the second one.
So, every two weeks for about 6 weeks, you will plant a salad bowl garden with greens you enjoy in fresh salads.
See this list of salad fixings you can grow indoors.
Week One
Plant Salad Bowl Garden #1
Two Weeks Later (Week 4)
Plant Salad Bowl Garden #2
Two More Weeks Later (Week 6)
Plant Salad Bowl Garden #3
When To Plant Lettuce
Lettuce is a cool weather crop which means you cannot grow it outside in the summer months. However, you can grow lettuce indoors any time of the year. Depending on how much space you have for a few salad bowl gardens indoors. You can sit your salad bowl container gardens outside in Spring and Fall.
See: Salad Bowl Gardening Made Easy for more detailed information on planting and harvesting lettuce.
Growing lettuce indoors in the Spring and Fall
Leave your salad bowl container garden outside when temperatures are between 40-75° F. You can give your lettuce bowl a head start a few weeks before moving it outside. Start your lettuce plants indoors in the Spring or Fall. All you need is a sunny window and a container.
If you are planting seeds, calculate the germination time based on the type of lettuce you are planting. That information is on the seed package. When planting seeds, you still need to sit your container in the window as sunlight is needed for germination.
Planting seedlings is my personal favorite mostly because I’m too excited to wait on the seeds to pop up even though that is quite exciting to watch. You can do both, seeds and seedlings but be sure to stagger their planting for succession harvests.
Summer
Hot summer heat is a deal breaker for growing lettuce. This is when you will want to move all of your lettuce container gardens indoors to a sunny window. If you have been growing lettuce in the ground or in a raised bed, you can make a container garden now. Start them from scratch, inside, and grow your own salad greens all summer long indoors.
Harvesting Salad Greens Year Round
Loose Leaf Lettuce
Loose leaf lettuce will continue to grow more leaves if you harvest from the outer leaves first. You can actually begin harvesting loose leaves as soon as young tender leaves appear. Either pinch off carefully or use scissors to cut the leaves. Wait at least 3 days before harvesting the same plant again. Rinse off your fresh salad greens and dry them on paper towels or use a Salad Spinner like this to dry them. Freshly harvested lettuce will store in the fridge for a few days.
Head Lettuce
While you can also harvest head lettuce by cutting the outside leave first, we generally grow it for the entire head. To harvest the whole head at one time, use a sharp knife to cut it off above the dirt. Head lettuce requires a little more space than leaf lettuce which means you can’t grow as much at one time in a container. It also takes longer to harvest.
Not much space for growing lettuce indoors? You can grow lettuce in a Solo cup! Watch the video below to see how.
Timing Your Succession Planting
As you gain experience, you will figure out the perfect schedule for growing a continuous supply of lettuce for you and your family. In the video above, he seems to be growing lettuce for one person so one container will be sufficient to harvest at one time. However, if you want to try growing lettuce in Solo cups and you have a family of four, grow more cups at one time. Then plant the next set two weeks later and so forth and so on to give your family a never-ending supply of healthy salad greens.
The key to always having a supply of fresh homegrown, organic lettuce is succession planting and year-round planting. Set your containers outside in the Spring and Fall and bring them inside by a sunny window during the heat of the summer.
Learn More About Salad Bowl Container Gardening
- 3 Reasons To Grow A Salad Bowl Garden
- Salad Bowl Gardening Made Easy
- Types Of Lettuce To Easily Grow In Containers
- Salad Fixings You Can Grow Indoors
Book Review: Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 days
