Salad leaves and microgreens

Salad leaves grow faster than anything else you can eat. Sow them today; cut them in three weeks. Mizuna, rocket, lamb's lettuce, land cress, mustard greens and loose-leaf lettuces all thrive in shallow trays or window boxes. They need only 5–8cm of compost depth, which makes them perfect for tight spaces.

Loose-leaf lettuces (cut-and-come-again types) are the workhorses. 'Lollo Rosso', 'Salad Bowl', 'Oak Leaf' and heritage 'Marvel of Four Seasons' all regrow after cutting. Butterhead and cos varieties take longer and need more space, so skip them unless you have a roof rack or awning.

Microgreens — seedlings harvested at 7–14 days — need no pots at all. Grow them in shallow trays lined with damp kitchen paper or a thin layer of compost. Pea shoots, radish, mustard, cress, sunflower and broccoli all work. They demand bright light but almost no water once sprouted. One tray yields enough greens for two salads.

Rocket (wild or salad) is the fastest leaf crop. It germinates in 3–5 days, grows in any light, and tolerates cold. It turns bitter in heat, so in summer switch to mizuna or komatsuna — both are mild, fast, and unbothered by temperatures up to 28°C. Lamb's lettuce (mâche) is the winter champion: it grows slowly but survives frosts that kill everything else.