Fothergill's Salad Leaves Easy Seed Collection

Details:

• Botanical Name: Various (A premium mixed collection of highly reliable, fast-growing salad cultivars).
• Plant Class: Hardy and Half-Hardy Annuals / Biennials, engineered for rapid germination and speedy, repeat harvests throughout the spring and summer.
• Six Separately Packed Varieties Included:
  • Lamb's Lettuce (Favor): Also known as Mâche, this cold-tolerant classic produces neat rosettes of thick, smooth, spoon-shaped leaves with a deliciously mild, melting, and nutty flavor.
  • Mizuna: A highly productive Japanese brassica green yielding deeply serrated, feathery leaves that provide a crisp, refreshing crunch and a very mild, pleasant pepper note.
  • Land Cress: The ultimate easy alternative to traditional watercress; yields glossy, dark green, scalloped leaves packed with a robust, spicy, and authentic peppery kick.
  • Mustard (Oriental Red): Brings sensational visual contrast and culinary heat with its large, textured, plum-purple washed leaves that pack a sharp, wasabi-like mustard punch.
  • Lettuce (Salad Bowl Mixed): A gorgeous combination of deeply lobed, wavy-edged green and red oak-leaf lettuces that naturally form large, loose mounds perfect for non-stop picking.
  • Rocket (Wild or Salad Type): Fast and furious growth delivering aromatic, dark green serrated leaves rich in essential oils, providing that signature, intense nutty-pepper bite.
• Sensory Contrast: Offers a beautiful palette of crisp greens and rich, deep purples alongside a spectrum of flavors ranging from cool and buttery to sharply peppery and pungent.
• Perfect for Small Spaces: Remarkably adaptable and shallow-rooted, making the entire collection absolutely ideal for growing in shallow balcony troughs, patio containers, or raised salad beds.

Care Instructions:

• Sowing Position: For a continuous, non-stop summer supply, sow small pinch-batches of seeds every 2 to 3 weeks from March through to August. Sow thinly, 0.5cm deep, directly into finely raked garden soil, raised beds, or large patio containers filled with multi-purpose compost. Position in full sun or light partial shade to keep leaves tender during hot spells.
• The Cut-and-Come-Again Method: When growing for baby leaves, space rows roughly 15cm apart. Once the leaves reach a usable height of 5–10cm, use clean kitchen scissors to snip them off about 2.5cm above the soil level, leaving the central growing point intact. The plants will rapidly regenerate to provide 2 to 3 further flushes of fresh foliage.
• Growing to Maturity: If you prefer large, mature plants (especially for the Salad Bowl Lettuce and Lamb's Lettuce), simply thin out the young seedlings to space them 15–20cm apart, using the thinnings directly in the salad bowl.
• Moisture Control: Salad leaves are water-rich crops that require consistent, even moisture to remain sweet and crisp. Water regularly and deeply during dry summer spells. Allowing salad crops to dry out completely stresses the root systems, causing the foliage to turn tough and "bolt" (run to flower and turn bitter) prematurely.