Get Planting .... summer salads

It’s easy to forget to sow new crops so you don’t run out of leaves for salads and stir-fries, but now’s an ideal time to catch up so you can harvest crisp, fresh produce from high summer through to autumn.

Fast-growing types, such as mizuna and mustards, can be sown individually or in mixtures according to taste, for harvestable leaves in four to six weeks. They're ideal as a catch crop around slower-growing or partially harvested varieties, or as a cut-and-come-again crop in pots.

Versatile lettuce varieties, such as ‘All Year Round’, can still be sown now to yield a succession of heads and leaves for salad mixtures.

Spinach can be a problem crop for some as plants can quickly bolt and run to seed if they get stressed in hot dry weather. Perpetual spinach is a form of chard or beet, but tastes like true spinach, but is just as easy to grow, and far more drought-resistant. Sown now, you can soon be cropping leaves from plants that keep producing fresh new growth over a long season. Also try sowing pak choi now, as they're prone to bolt if sown too early. They need warm, moist conditions and rich soil to give their best, and when happy produce succulent heads for salads and stir-fries. You may need to cover with a fine net to prevent attacks by flea beetle, which can damage brassica crops such as these in dry weather.

The secret to good leaves is to ensure the soil has plenty of organic matter for moisture retention, so dig in compost if following on from a hungry crop and mix in a little bit of Growmore to provide a boost in nitrogen. Keep plants moist so they keep growing strongly and evenly and you won’t go far wrong.