How to Grow Leafy Greens
The Stuff Salads are Made Of.
Swiss Chard on the Hibiscus Mound.
The Tropical Grower is finishing up our growing your own food at home series this week with How to Grow Leafy Greens. Yup, Lettuce. I’m a fan. In fact, it’s an extremely odd day if I don’t have a salad for at least one meal. If it has steak on it, even better. As a lover of salads, it just made sense to grow the moist crunchy deliciousness that is Leafy Greens, and we weren’t disappointed. It loves Our Garden most of the year, and most varieties are quick, easy grows.
Lettuce, Swiss Chard, Kale and Arugula are all Leafy Greens. They’re easily recognizable by the part you eat, the leaves. Whether the variety grows tight leaves, like Romaine, or bushy like Curled Crest, you eat the leaves. You can Harvest them young and tender, often found in Spring Mixes or wait until they are big, fully mature leaves, and Harvest the entire plant or half the plant and grow another round. They will grow in sun and shade, depending on the type of year and variety, and Lettuce can be worked into almost any bed, at any point in your Crop Rotation. We saved it for last because now that you have your spring crop planted, hopefully, it’s time to work in more Leafy Greens.
It’ll Go There
Leafy Greens fit into almost any part of your garden. During the hot summer months, plant it under the shade of your tomato plants, behind the wall of your bean supports, or fill empty planting holes from early harvest plants, also where your snow peas ate it in the hot sun. Just me? These quick grows are really good for a late plant, usually only taking 30 to 45 days before you can start Harvesting outside leaves.
Spacing is anywhere from 6 to 18 inches, depending on the variety and whether you are Growing Tropical. So yeah, you can squeeze those right in there, no problem. Some of our veggies, like Broccoli, who hate competing roots, will even grow their roots toward the shade the lettuce leaves provide and end up liking them planted near. Who knew? So, not only should you plan for Leafy Greens, you should keep the seeds handy well into your planting season. I reseed the same Lettuce nursery pots as soon as the Starter Plants are dropped in the ground, until June. Yeah, now. The nursery is pretty empty during the first part of summer. Bummer.
Growing Conditions
Leafy Greens are technically cold weather plants, for the most part, that like full sun. If you are Growing Tropical, do not plant these in full sun except in the Winter season, and only then, cautiously. They will bolt or die. That also goes for everyone else whose temperatures are not hovering in the 70s for the growing season. They don’t like extreme heat. Upper 80s and things get wonky. Don’t worry, you absolutely can still grow them. Move them into dappled sun, like with a light tree canopy or plant them to the east of your taller growers. A couple to a few hours of full morning sun works well, but go easy on the sun unless you have cooler temperatures.
Leafy Greens like consistently moist, not overly wet soil. They need it to form the crunchy leaves. Make sure the soil isn’t drying out, the plants will start to droop, and you’ll get limp chewy leaves. Yuck.
Soil & Nutrients
Leafy Greens want some Nitrogen. How much depends on the variety. It makes sense because Nitrogen helps make the leafy green parts of all plants. Common Lettuces need some, but an over abundance isn’t necessary. Growing organic, Row Crops such as Lettuce are rotated in after the Brassicas who gulp Nitrogen out of the soil. They use what’s left. However, Leafy Greens such as Kale and Arugula are Brassicas and need extra Nitrogen. Are you confused yet? Check your growing instructions. They’ll tell you what the plant you are growing needs. For more on Crop Rotation see How to Ace Your Spring Planting Plan.
They also prefer a well draining soil. We plant all our Leafy Greens in Sandy Compost or Black Sand, hitting the beds at planting with a fresh serving of Compost. For existing beds, we also sprinkle a light serving of a granular vegetable fertilizer. If we’re planting Kale, the bed also gets a shot of Black Cow to boost the Nitrogen levels. Since our Kale and Arugula often span more than one growing season, we also hit the beds at the start of the next season, if they’re still alive, with a big helping of Black Cow.
Varieties
Leafy Greens generally come in two types, Head and Leaf varieties. There isn’t much difference except the leaves on the Head varieties grow together in tightly formed plants where the Leaf varieties bush out. That means you have to pay attention to your spacing, the heads will need less. They range in flavor from peppery or spicy, such as with Curled Endive to the extremely mild varieties like Buttercrunch. If you’re going with a Kale or other Brassica, the mature leaves are going to be heartier. You can basically find a variety to fit any taste and growing zone. It’s completely personal.
We bought the Organo Republic Lettuce & Salad Greens Variety Pack to try a bunch, see what worked in Our Garden. Everything grows during the Winter. Whatever I planted, wherever I planted it, it grew with irrigation. We drought here in the Winter, and everything needs water. There were literally unharvested mature plants falling over in the yard. What I found out was, I was the only one in My Family who will eat anything but mild Leafy Greens with the exception of Arugula. Again, I eat a ton of Leafy Greens, but even I couldn’t keep up. Lesson learned. Super funny. Now.
Common Lettuce
We grow Romaine, Cimmaron, and Buttercrunch on a regular rotation throughout our growing seasons, Sept into June. July and August are difficult rainy season months. These are our standards because they are easy to grow, they keep well in the fridge and everyone will eat them. In the Winter, I also drop some Oakleaf, Mache and usually another random variety. This year I was battling Hurricane Ian clean-up and didn’t get around to seeding a wild card. Dang.
While Common Lettuces usually prefer to be direct planted, we grow ours to 3rd leaf set in the nursery. It’s out of necessity. Seeds have very mixed results for us here in Our Garden. Big seeds usually are okay, but only a select few small seeds will make it. Lettuce is not one of them. If you sprout seeds well, it’s their preferred method and you have a couple of options.
Spring Mix vs. Harvest
Both the young tender leaves and the mature leaves can be Harvested and eaten on all Common Lettuce varieties. It’s a personal preference, but there is a difference in the way you plant them. Mature plants will need space and time to grow where young plants can be crowded and Harvested quickly.
Harvested Plants
Drop Lettuce seeds you want to Harvest at maturity on Raised Mounts, space according to the Instructions. This is a rough the soil, sprinkle seeds and pat the soil back into place plant. It doesn’t matter whether the mound is in the ground, a Raised Bed or a pot. It all grows the same. Most varieties will need to be pruned to between 6 and 8 inches apart, but there are some varieties that grow much bigger. If you are Growing Tropical, your Lettuces will be more likely to grow bigger up, not out. For more on starting seed see How to Choose Between Seeds and Starter Plants
When it looks close to Harvest, big well formed leaves, cut all but the bottom base leaves, two or three rows deep and leave them in the ground. If it’s not too hot, the whole top should grow more heads, and you will get Harvest #2 out of the plant. Watch for bolting, the tall thick stalks coming out of the middle. These form the flowers, and if you see them, your whole plant has most likely turned bitter. Not the good kind. We often get bolting after the 1st Harvest due to the heat here in our Tropical Growing Zone.
Spring Mix
If you are only growing young leaves, they won’t need much space. You simply sprinkle the seeds across a prepared bed. They don’t even have to be in rows or spaced. You can even use a variety of different seeds. Root Vegetables such as Radishes work well as they sprout quickly.
Let all the seeds sprout and grow until the leaves reach 3 to 4 inches and harvest the bed. Repeat. If you use a larger bed, plant it in stages for a steady harvest, meaning plant about ¼ of the bed every week to couple of weeks for a continuous food supply. It works well for containers and pots of all sizes as well. Dedicate a group of pots and plant a pot or a couple a week until you have seeds in all of them. Hopefully, by the last one, the first one will be ready to Harvest.
Swiss Chard & Arugula
Swiss Chard and Arugula are very similar grows and a lot like large leaf Lettuce. The biggest difference in planting is the larger seeds of Swiss Chard need to be planted to a ½ inch instead of the ¼ inch of Arugula and all the other Common Lettuces. While I have seen both small in a Spring Mix, we don’t grow them that way. We grow giant plants throughout Our Garden, and they both grow when all of the other Common Lettuces have died.
Because of their size, we dedicate larger planting holes, ones Broccoli, Cauliflower and Tomatoes also grow, to their large Tropical sizes, in. It’s a necessity. The Swiss Chard grows large enough to do fan dances with individual leaves. No lie, one leaf is enough for a 3 person salad, and everyone will eat it. Yea! The Arugula leaves get so long and heavy, they crack their own stalks. You would think this messes with the flavor, but no. Ours are yummy and flavorful.
Hearty, Continually Producing Growers
While Swiss Chard and Arugula are considered cold weather plants, they will tolerate heat and make perfect additions for Tropical Growing Zones. It also means they grow well in other northern zones in the summer when all the other Leafy Greens are choking. Swiss Chard even does it in full sun. That’s a find. The Arugula prefers a more shady environment in the heat, but I still have it thriving well into July when everything that isn’t tropical dies.
Harvest
Once the leaves reach 6 to 8 inches, Harvest individual leaves from the bottom/outside. Don’t cut the center leaves unless you want to Harvest the entire plant. Cutting only outside leaves will extend the Harvest of the plant throughout the growing season and it will tell the plant to produce more leaves. Double win! Eat everything you Harvest. It’s all good.
Other Similar Varieties
There are many other varieties of loose leaf greens grown just like Swiss Chard and Arugula. Spinach, the Curled Leaf varieties, Mizuna, Watercrest, the Crests of any variety, really, to name a few. Whether bushy or growing around a center stalk, they all grow and are Harvested similarly. Check your temperatures and growing instructions. If you’re Growing Tropical, you’ll have better luck with most of these in the Winter. Check out How to Set Up Simple Irrigation. You’ll need it for Winter grows.
Kale
Kale is Harvested the same way, throughout the growing season from the bottom/outside. If planted in Sept, we Harvest a single plant from Oct/Nov through the middle of July. It struggles through the summer rainy season.
At the end, when it is dying, I chop the center leaves and stalk where it’s still alive and stick it in the ground. New plant. We’re at about 5 or 6 years in with the current, Vates Blue Scotch Curled. Unfortunately, I’m the only one in my household that will eat it. So, one plant is more than enough. If it gets bushy, I’ll Harvest a bunch for My Son and Hannah. They have bunnies.
While it can be Harvested like Lettuce in a single take, even with the possibility of a 2nd Harvest, it doesn’t make sense for us if we can continue to grow the plant. For those of you who grow in more northern regions, Kale will tolerate some frost, but if you can’t shelter it in place, you can try to transplant it into a pot and move it to the greenhouse or nursery for the colder season. I have not tried to transplant ours to a pot, but it transplants beautifully into another part of its bed. Same concept.
Varieties
Kale comes in different varieties. If you’ve had some you hate, try a different one. I would recommend a non-curled variety. This year I planted a milder, less hearty Dwarf Siberian Improved. Dwarf, Ha! These were 2 ½ foot leaves, but mild. We got them in the Gardeners Basics Seed Safe Variety Pack.
I Harvested a bunch of leaves and stuck them in the fridge in the area with the other lettuces, in a separate bag. My family stuck them on sandwiches, shredded them for tacos and stuck them in a salad before I came clean. Uh, yeah, you’re eating Kale. Um, uh-huh, I know you don’t like Kale. I’m unsure if the smaller, young leaves were less mild, we didn’t eat them, but the big ones were similar in look and feel to Buttercrunch lettuce, at least from Our Garden. We grow them in Partial Shade and the leaves are much less hearty.
Partial Shade
All our Kale is planted in Partial Shade. It gets a good dose of first morning rays, less than an hour, before it’s dappled sun until about 2 pm where it’s completely shaded by the trees. I questioned whether it would be enough the 1st year. It is. There was a balance in finding a place with enough sun and enough shelter from the heat, and we have the perfect spot under the high tree canopy, west of the Variegated Hibiscus Tree. It even tries to take over the Oregano, also there, every year.
Nutrients
Where most of the other Leafy Greens do okay with smaller amounts of Nitrogen, not so with Kale. Again, they need a dose of Nitrogen at planting, and they will need it again if they have a prolonged growing season. We usually dose all our Brassica, planted in Sept, when we prep the other beds for Spring in Feb. It also doesn’t hurt the Kale is planted next to the Hibiscus bed where we do natural composting. We’re constantly making Nitrogen there. Big eyebrow wiggle.
Leafy Green Maintenance
Weed and water, you’re done. Because of the quick grow, Leafy Greens are usually Harvested before bugs find them or get established. We’ve only had problems with the Kale, and this year with Hurricane Ian, the Swiss Chard. These have a much longer growing season. Treating with Fungicide3 cleared them up. Unfortunately, the bugs ate the Swiss Chard center leaves, and, although bug free, it didn’t recover. Dang. We just planted more. Everything else was likely to bolt.
If you hate bugs, try planting companion plants. Most bugs hate garlic. We also plant Marigolds, and they’re pretty. I’ve found they’re not fond of onions either. Some people grow other plants bugs love to attract them away from the ones they want, like Eggplant, and they buy useful, bad bug eating, bugs. You can also pre-treat your garden for pests, but be careful. Most pesticides are not meant to be used near plants you eat, even if it’s just their fruit. You can put something on there that makes you sick. Who wants that?
How to Grow Leafy Greens
Besides tasting better, home grown varieties tend to be higher in Vitamin A. Fun fact. It’s also pretty cool to walk outside and Harvest your dinner. I believe I’ve mentioned previously there being something immensely satisfying about eating something I’ve grown. I like it. There is nothing that brings that home more than walking outside and cutting it right before you wash and eat it. So satisfying. And Leafy Greens and Herbs are regular, cut and eat, in Our Garden. You definitely need some.
