You can enjoy the benefits of your garden earlier in the season and on a consistent basis by growing salad mixes. Most salad greens are fast growing, and can be planted successively throughout the season. Arugula is a fast-growing green that adds a tangy, peppery taste to salad mixes. It is often included in mesclun salad mixes found at supermarkets. You can grow arugula every two to three weeks until a month before the first frost date in the fall.
Steps to Grow Arugula
What You Need
Arugula Seeds
Shovel
Compost
Step 1
Select an area with full sun or partial shade to grow your arugula. Prepare the soil to a depth of 6 inches. Mix compost evenly through the soil.
Step 2
Sow each seed at a depth of ¼ inch. Space each plant 1 inch apart in rows ½ feet apart.
Step 3
Thin seedlings to 6 inches apart once they have 3 to 4 leaves developed on the plant. Use the seedlings in salads.
Step 4
Water your arugula each day so the soil stays evenly moist.
Step 5
Harvest leaves from your arugula plant by picking off outside leaves at the base of the plant. Let the center leaves continue to grow until you are ready to harvest them for use.
Tip
The seed pods of arugula plants are edible, as well. The pods have a spicy radish taste.
Resources
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County; Home Grown Facts: Growing Arugula
Purdue University; Arugula: A Promising Specialty Leaf Vegetable
Keywords: grow arugula, how to grow arugula, steps to grow arugula, tips to grow arugula
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