One tray of cut-and-come-again salad gives three or four cuttings

Cut-and-come-again salad is the easiest way to grow your own leaves. Sow a mix thickly, cut it when it’s about 10 cm (4 in) tall, and it grows back for another cut, and another. One tray or short row gives three or four cuttings over about six weeks.

Sow outside from about three weeks before your last spring frost until about eight weeks before your first autumn frost. Sow a little more every three to four weeks, and you’ll have leaves most of the year.

Choosing a mix

Seed companies sell salad leaf mixes of loose-leaf lettuces, rocket, mustards, mizuna and other quick leaves. Pick by season:

• Spring and autumn: spicy mixes with rocket, mustard, mizuna and other oriental leaves. They grow fast in cool weather.
• Summer: mostly lettuce mixes. Rocket and mustards bolt in heat.
• Late autumn and winter, under cover: hardy mixes with lamb’s lettuce, land cress and winter lettuce.

Loose-leaf lettuces such as Salad Bowl and Lollo Rosso also work on their own. Hearting lettuces don’t regrow well.

Sowing

1. Choose a sunny spot, or light shade in summer. A pot, window box or trough at least 15 cm (6 in) deep is fine.
2. Rake the soil fine, or fill the container with multipurpose compost.
3. Sow the seed thinly but evenly, about 1 cm (½ in) deep. In a row, aim for a seedling every 5 cm (2 in), in rows 15 cm (6 in) apart. In a pot, scatter it so seeds are a finger’s width apart.
4. Water gently and keep the surface damp until the seedlings appear, usually within a week or two.

You can also sow in trays indoors from about ten weeks before the last frost, for early leaves on a windowsill or in a greenhouse.

Cutting

The first cut is ready about 25 to 60 days after sowing, depending on the mix and the weather.

When the leaves are about 10 cm (4 in) tall, cut them with scissors 2 to 3 cm (1 in) above the soil. Leave the growing point at the base, which is where the new leaves come from. Water after cutting, and the next crop is ready in two to three weeks.

For a gentler harvest, pick the outer leaves from each plant by hand and leave the centre to keep growing.

Sowing little and often

One sowing crops for about six weeks. Sow a new row or pot every three to four weeks from spring to late summer, so a fresh batch is ready as the old one tires. Two or three short rows or pots on the go is plenty for most households.

Watering and feeding

Keep the soil or compost evenly moist. Dry roots make leaves bitter and push plants to bolt, especially rocket. In containers, water most days in summer. After a few cuts, a liquid feed helps the plants regrow.

Common problems

Slugs and snails. They love young leaves. Check at dusk, and raise containers off the ground.

Flea beetle. Small round holes in rocket and mustard leaves. Cover with fine mesh, and keep the soil moist.

Bolting. Plants send up flower stalks and turn bitter. Pull them out and sow again.

For sowing in steady batches, see lettuce from March to November, and for fitting salad into a small space, see square foot gardening.