Would you like to grow your own healthy salad vegetables at home?
There are many salad greens and sprouts that you can grow in containers on your kitchen windowsill or bench top, that will be ready to harvest in a few days or weeks.
Here are 8 easy and fast growing salad vegetables to plant at home.
1. Lettuce
Oakleaf and butter lettuce are quick growing varieties of lettuce that mature in 45 to 55 days.
You don’t have to wait for the lettuces to grow to full size though; you can pick off a few of the outside leaves as you need them.
There’s nothing like fresh, crispy lettuce leaves straight from the garden.
You can plant a few seeds every couple of weeks to have a steady supply of lettuce for salads and sandwiches.
2. Microgreens
Microgreens are leafy greens that are harvested when they have about four leaves.
Some of the quickest growing microgreens are broccoli, radish and cress.
To grow your own microgreens at home, fill a small tray with potting mix and sprinkle the seeds on the surface. Place the tray on a sunny windowsill and keep the soil moist.
You could also use a self-watering microgreens kit to make it easier.
The microgreens will be ready to harvest in about a week and you can snip them off with a pair of scissors as you need them.
3. Alfalfa Sprouts
Alfalfa sprouts are fast growing salad sprouts that will be ready to eat in about 5 to 7 days.
To grow your own alfalfa sprouts, add a tablespoon of alfalfa seeds to a sprouting jar or a glass jar covered with gauze or cheesecloth.
Fill the jar with water and then let the water drain out. Do this every day until the sprouts are ready to eat.
This is a great project to get kids interested in gardening.
4. Arugula
Arugula, also known as rocket or roquette, is a fast growing, slightly bitter salad green from the same family as broccoli and kale.
It’s ready to harvest in about 40 days, so you can plant it in the garden in spring and harvest it in summer or plant it in late summer for a fall harvest.
If you live in a warm climate, you can also grow arugula in winter or you can grow it indoors in a container.
5. Cress
Cress is another fast growing salad plant that is ready to harvest in about 5 to 7 days after planting.
You can sprinkle the seeds onto moist paper towel and after a couple of days when the seeds have sprouted, move it to a bright windowsill.
The stalks can be snipped off at the base with a pair of scissors as needed and used in salads.
Cress can also be planted in a pot and grown for a bit longer for larger seedlings.
6. Kale
Kale can be eaten raw in salads if it’s picked early while it’s still tender.
You can try purple kale or curly blue kale and harvest them at about 25 days for crisp salad leaves.
Kale plants grow best in cool weather and they’re frost hardy.
7. Beet Greens
Most people grow beets for the roots, but the leaves are also edible and make a nice addition to salads.
Beet roots are ready to harvest in 45 to 60 days but you can start harvesting the greens when they get to about 6 inches (15 cm) tall.
The leaves can be snipped off as you need them but you’ll need to leave a few leaves on the plant if you’re planning to harvest the root as well.
8. Baby Spinach
Baby spinach is a cold hardy salad vegetable that ideal for providing some greenery to your meals over the winter months.
The seeds can be planted directly in the garden and they’ll be ready to harvest in 4 to 6 weeks.
Individual leaves can be harvested as needed or you can pick the whole plant at once.
9. Swiss Chard
Swiss chard is related to beets and has a slightly bitter taste, similar to spinach, and the leaves and stalks are both edible.
It takes about 50 to 65 days for the plants to mature but you can begin harvesting a few of the outside leaves well before that.