How to Grow Salad Greens

Salad greens, like lettuce and spinach, grow quickly, and when you cut them, new ones form. Instead of sowing several seeds at the same time, plant a row every two weeks to provide a steady supply. Salad greens grow in full sun and most soil types are suitable. The seeds germinate in 1 week and the leaves are ready to harvest from 3 weeks. This project takes four weeks to complete.

Materials Needed:

• planter
• gravel
• potting soil
• salad greens seeds, like lettuce and spinach

• kid-safe scissors
• plastic milk jug
• marker

1. Prepare your planter.

Put a thin layer of gravel in the base. Fill it with potting soil and water it well, then wait for the water to drain through, leaving the soil moist.

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2. Plant the seeds.

Make a 1/2-inch-deep trench along the back of the planter and sow seeds thinly along it. Brush soil over them lightly with your fingertips. Water using a watering can.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - Ready Set Grow! © 2010 Dorling Kindersley Limited

3. Keep your greens organized.

Label each row with a marker made from one side of a plastic milk bottle and write the date on it when the row was sown.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - Ready Set Grow! © 2010 Dorling Kindersley Limited