Salad Greens You Can Grow in Winter
A Guide to Planting and Harvesting Winter Salad Greens
Want to eat fresh lettuce and salad greens this winter? Late summer to early fall is the time to plant your winter garden.
If you like fresh garden salads, you’ll be glad to know you can grow a full range of salad greens throughout the winter in our moderate southern BC maritime climate. Leafy winter salad vegetables come in a variety of flavours, colours and textures—from peppery to earthy, crunchy to delicate.
Flavours of Cold Weather Salad Greens
Fall and winter salad greens include such hardy plants as spicy arugula, fresh baby spinach leaves and cold-season lettuces. Baby beet greens bring lovely deep red and green colour to salads.
Brassicas and mustards, such as baby kale, bok choi, tatsoi, mizuna and red mustard offer crunchy, sharp and earthy flavours. The slightly bitter leaves of chicories like endive, escarole, frisée, and radicchio add texture and various degrees of bitters to mixed salad greens.
Mild-Flavoured Winter Greens
Most winter salad greens are hardy and have some bite. Are there any mild winter salad greens? Lettuce, of course—romaine, buttercrunch, oakleaf and other loose-leaf varieties, grow well in cool weather.
Mâche (Corn Salad, Lamb’s Lettuce) is refreshing and full of flavour. One of the most cold hardy of all greens, this lesser-known leaf vegetable can survive temperatures as low as -18ºC (0ºF). Mâche grows slowly in small, low rosettes and is ready for harvest when it is about 10 cm or 4 inches across. The leaves are delicate and damage easily in shipment, which is why you’ll rarely find mâche at the supermarket. (Grow this one yourself!)
Another mild, succulent and greatly overlooked salad green is the West Coast native, Claytonia (Miner’s Lettuce, Winter Purslane). Claytonia has sweet, green-tasting leaves and stems, and small edible white blossoms in the spring. Claytonia can grow without protection throughout the winter.
How to Grow Winter Salad Greens
If planting from seed, start most winter salad greens between July and September. Plant established starts as late as September or October. Keep in mind that the cold and low winter light will slow the growth, so plant a lot.
Mulch, cold frames, hoop houses and other season extension techniques can help speed growth and protect your plants from wind and cold. Because the daytime temperatures are warmer inside a cold frame, cultivars have a chance to recover from cold nighttime temperatures.
The guide below shows seed planting and harvest times for winter salad greens in southern maritime British Columbia.
Planting & Harvesting Winter Salad Greens in South Coast BC
| Winter Salad Greens | Flavour | Planting Date | Harvest |
| Arugula (Rocket) |
Spicy, Sharp | Aug – Sept | Fall, Winter, Spring |
| Beet Greens | Mildly Bitter | Aug – Sept | Fall, Winter |
| Bok Choi | Crunchy, Mildly Bitter | Aug – Oct | Winter, Spring |
| Claytonia (Miner’s Lettuce, Winter Purslane) |
Succulent, Mild | Sept | Winter, Spring |
| Endive | Crisp, Mildly Bitter | Aug – Sept | Fall, Winter |
| Escarole | Mildly Bitter | Aug – Sept | Fall, Winter |
| Frisée | Crisp, Mildly Bitter | Aug – Sept | Fall, Winter |
| Kale | Earthy, Strong Flavoured | July – Aug | Fall, Winter, Spring |
| Lettuce | Crisp, Crunchy, Mild | July – Sept | Fall, Winter |
| Mâche (Corn Salad) |
Delicate, Mild, Refreshing | Aug – Oct | Fall, Winter, Spring |
| Mizuna | Sharp, Peppery | June – July | Fall, Winter |
| Mustards | Peppery | July – Aug | Fall, Winter |
| Parsely (Curly Parsley) |
Earthy, Hint of Minerals | April – Sept | Fall, Winter, Spring |
| Radicchio (Chicory) |
Bitter, Spicy | June – July | Fall, Winter |
| Sorrel | Tangy, Lemony | April (perennial) | Fall, Spring |
| Spinach | Earthy, Hints of Minerals | July – Oct | Fall, Winter |
| Tatsoi (Spoon Cabbage) |
Mild Mustardlike Flavour | Aug – Oct | Winter, Spring |
More articles:
15 Plants That Help Bees Through the Winter
10 Tips for Year-Round Vegetable Gardens
Grow a Climate Change Resilient Garden
Protect Your Plants from Heat, Cold, Wind and Rain
I love the idea of planting in the fall, but my experience has been the shortening days — not the threat of frost — to be the BIG problem. I’ve never had much success, in spite of many efforts. Am I missing something?
You need to plant A LOT of greens to have enough to harvest with any regularity. This is because the light is much lower and more limited in the fall and winter. Greens grow much more slowly than in the summer. The best crops will be those that are well established before the cold weather sets in. For winter salad greens, plan on harvesting less often: about once a week (as compared to every couple of days in high summer.)