Growing a salad garden that contains everything you need for the perfect salad doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. In fact, you can grow one even in containers or raised beds easily and effectively.
Related: Growing a Salsa Garden
A fresh salad is a great lunch or dinner idea and that salad might taste even better if you grow the ingredients yourself! If a salad garden sounds like something you would enjoy, take a look below at 7 salad garden must haves that you should consider!
How to grow a salad garden
Tomatoes You can choose from a variety of tomatoes depending on the amount of space and time you have. If using smaller container gardening methods, choose cherry tomatoes or other small vine varieties. If you have more space or large box beds, you can opt for Big Boy or heirloom varieties. Make your salads more colorful by planting both yellow and red varieties.
Cucumbers Cucumbers can add crunch to any salad, and the good news is they won’t take up much space in your garden. Put some trellising in place so your cucumbers can grow vertically, which keeps them out of the dirt and mud and makes them easily accessible. Really limited on space? Now worries, plant pickling cucumbers so you grow a smaller variety.
Green Peppers Add some vitamins to your salad when you add green peppers. You can choose from basic green peppers to spicier varieties, and you will find that these grow well in both basic garden plots and larger containers. Should you wish for other pepper varieties, you can choose smaller peppers such as sweet peppers or banana peppers and grow them in pots using a trellis.
Spinach You can’t have a great salad without spinach! It makes an excellent base to the salad and is quite easy to grow. Spinach can be grown in a basic garden plot or does well in containers also. You can pick daily and enjoy fresh leafy greens all season, making this a salad garden plant that is ideal for your tight budget.
Kale Kale is the perfect choice for your salad garden because it will grow well into the fall months. The leaves if kale are rich in nutrients and it is considered a superfood, excellent for your diet and health. Even if you have a shadier garden and enjoy cooler summer months, it will flourish.
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Mint Now why on earth would you plant mint in your salad garden? Because mint is perfect for FRUIT SALAD! You can make all sorts of sweet dressings for desserts and fruit salad using fresh mint. Plant just a little because it tends to grow like crazy. In fact, planting it in a container is probably best.
Arugula Arugula is another leafy green that makes an excellent salad base. Perfect for container growing it will get full and bush out, giving you plenty of fresh greens per plant. Arugula is nutrient rich and will do well in various planting conditions, making it the perfect salad garden plant in less than ideal soil or sun.
Remember, you don’t need a ton of land when growing a salad garden. All of these items can be planted in large pots or containers, or even added to your regular landscaping plants. As long as you have soil that drains well and at minimum 6 hours of sun per day, you are all set!