How to Start a Fall Salad Garden
Last updated September 7, 2023
Fall's cooler temperatures are perfect for growing salad greens. Whether harvesting lettuce as tender baby greens, or mature, leafy greens, plant now for salads later. Plant fast-growing radishes, another cool weather favorite, to grow alongside, and slice and serve in your salad.
Mixed greens and radishes are perfect for fall salads, and will grow quickly. Choose from seeds or seedlings, or a mixture of both, for the greens. Radishes grow to maturity from seed in about 30 days. Read plant tags for days to germination and maturity and plant well before your area's average date of first frost.
Difficulty:
Beginner
Duration:
Under 2 hours
Table of Contents
How to Grow Salad Greens from Seeds
How to Grow Radishes from Seeds
How to Grow Salad Greens from Seeds
When planting salad greens, select a site that receives 6 to 8 hours of sunlight each day.
How to sow lettuce seeds:
- Remove weeds from existing bed.
- Use a spading fork to mix in organic compost.
- Rake soil smooth. Make three parallel planting trenches, 6 inches apart and a half inch deep. Sprinkle the three types of seeds evenly into the three trenches, one inch apart.
- Cover seeds with 1/4-inch of garden soil. Pat soil firmly around the lettuce seeds only.
- Water lightly.
- Keep the bed weeded and watered.
- After the seeds sprout, gradually thin plants to 4 inches apart by pulling out the smallest ones. Thinning produces healthier plants and more produce.
- Extend your season by planting more seeds in three weeks, for a succession planting.
Learn more about growing and harvesting lettuce.
How to Grow Radishes from Seeds
Radishes are the perfect starter vegetable for young and newbie gardeners, and a tasty addition to your fall salads.
Check seed packets for fast-growing varieties and remember that it's better to harvest a radish early rather than late. Older radishes become bitter and pithy.
Steps for sowing radishes:
- Choose a full sun site (6 to 8 hours of sunlight) for your garden. Remove any existing plant material and loosen the soil with a spading fork.
- Amend the soil with two inches of compost, composted manure or fertilizer as needed.
- Draw a garden trowel lightly along the prepared soil to create a slight indention. Sow your seeds.
- Water thoroughly and keep soil moist, especially as new seeds germinate.
- Thin out seedlings when they grow to one inch tall, according to seed packet instructions.
- For a continuous garden, sow a new row of seeds every two weeks.
Both tender greens and radishes are easy to grow and tasty in salads. When you're ready to sow your fall salad garden and need the right planters, seeds or potting soil, The Home Depot delivers online orders when and where you need them.
