Why Little and Often Beats One Big Row

Salad leaves are the quickest, most generous crop on a smallholding, and also the easiest to get badly wrong. Sow a whole packet in a fit of April enthusiasm and you will spend three weeks eating lettuce at every meal while the rest bolts, turns bitter and runs to seed. Sow a short row every fortnight instead, and you can carry a fresh bowl to the table almost all year round.

That rhythm — a small sowing every 14 days — is what gardeners mean by succession sowing. It suits a smallholding beautifully because it takes no extra ground, merely a little discipline and a notebook. A 60cm row of cut-and-come-again leaves will keep a household in salads for a fortnight. Two such rows, started a fortnight apart, will keep them coming indefinitely, and you will never again find yourself composting a wheelbarrow of slimy, yellowing leaves.

Choosing Leaves That Earn Their Space

Not every salad crop suits the cut-and-come-again approach, so build your mix around those that do. These regrow from the crown after cutting rather than needing to be resown:

• Loose-leaf lettuces such as 'Salad Bowl', 'Lollo Rossa' and 'Red Salad Bowl' — quick, forgiving and endlessly cuttable.
• Rocket, mizuna and mustard — punchy, fast, and happiest in cooler weather.
• Corn salad (lamb's lettuce) and winter purslane — the backbone of a winter picking, sown from late August onwards.
• Land cress and claytonia — hardy, dependable and rarely troubled by pests.

Aim for a mix of textures and colours rather than a single variety, and include at least one hardy type in every late-season sowing. In high summer, choose bolt-resistant varieties and offer a little shade; in a hot spell even the best lettuce will run to seed if it dries out.

The Fortnightly Sowing Routine

Keep it small, keep it regular, and keep notes. From early March to mid-September, sow one short row or one tray every two weeks. Under cover in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse, you can begin in February and finish in October; with a cloche, outdoor sowings can start a fortnight earlier and run a fortnight later.

For a family of four, a 60cm row is a sensible unit. Either sow direct into a prepared seedbed at 1cm deep in shallow drills about 15cm apart, or — my preference for the first and last sowings of the year — raise seedlings in modules or 9cm pots and plant them out at 15–20cm spacing once they have four true leaves. Modules give you a head start against slugs and let you keep a close eye on germination. Water the drill before sowing, cover lightly, and label with the date. That date matters more than you think: it tells you exactly when the next sowing is due.

Protecting Young Seedlings from Slugs

Slugs are the single biggest reason small sowings fail. The damage happens overnight, and it happens fastest in the fortnight after germination, when the seedlings are soft, tender and irresistible.

• Start in modules and plant out sturdy seedlings rather than sowing direct wherever slugs are a serious problem.
• Water in the morning, not the evening, so the soil surface dries before the night patrol begins.
• Patrol by torch after dark and again at first light, when the culprits are easiest to find and remove.
• Keep the surrounding area tidy — long grass, damp planks and piles of leaves are all daytime slug hotels.
• Encourage ground beetles and hedgehogs by leaving a rough, undisturbed margin at the edge of the plot.

Barrier methods work best on small sowings, where a metre of protection goes a long way. Whatever you use, check it after heavy rain, as most barriers lose their effectiveness once thoroughly wet.

Cutting, Watering and Keeping the Row Going

Cut-and-come-again means exactly what it says. Once the leaves are 8–10cm tall, take them with scissors or a sharp knife, cutting 2–3cm above the crown and leaving the growing point intact. You will get two or three more cuttings from the same plants before quality declines, then pull the row and sow the next batch in its place.

Water deeply once or twice a week rather than little and often, and never let the row dry out completely — stress is what triggers bolting. In very hot weather, shade netting over a hoop frame can buy you another fortnight of good picking. Everything you cut comes off the soil, so a light feed of homemade compost tea after the second cutting keeps leaves sweet and tender.

Washing Leaves Properly Before Serving

Home-grown salad tastes far better than anything from a bag, but it does arrive with grit, soil and the occasional stowaway. Wash it thoroughly and it will be flawless.

Fill a large bowl with cold water and add a good pinch of salt. Drop the leaves in, agitate gently and leave for a minute or two — the salt water encourages any small slugs or insects to let go and sink. Lift the leaves out rather than pouring everything through a colander, so the grit stays in the bowl. Rinse in a second bowl of clean cold water, drain well, then dry in a salad spinner or between two clean tea towels. Wet leaves do not dress properly, and a proper spin makes the difference between a limp bowl and a crisp one. Serve the same day for the best flavour.