Grow your own WINTER SALAD

Summer may be ebbing away, but you can still grow a variety of tasty salad crops in the cooler months

- ESME CLEMO

Mention home-grown salads and most people think of a summer dish with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, radish, spring onions and other ingredients raised outdoors or in greenhouses, thriving in the warmth of spring and summer.

Yet, just because the weather is turning cooler, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy picking your own leafy greens. There are plenty of hardy varieties suitable for sowing now that will give you loads of tasty leaves in autumn and winter.

Winter purslane, lamb’s lettuce, mustards and several rugged forms of lettuce, plus the crops known as oriental greens, are ideal. They tolerate colder conditions and lower light levels, allowing swift germination for tasty treats to eat within six to eight weeks.

Most garden centres and DIY stores that sell seeds are likely to have suitable varieties – or look at veg specialists online.

All late-summer-sown, autumn planted cabbage grown for spring harvesting is best set out at 20cm spacing, so alternate plants can be cut as spring greens, leaving the rest to heart up.