Grow an entire salad bowl on your balcony: 8 plants that keep producing for months

The freshest salads are not always those bought at the store. Using certain plant selections, it is possible to grow fresh ingredients for salad bowls right on a balcony year-round. Many kinds of plants will continue producing leaves after harvesting. Such plants can easily be grown in small spaces like balconies and can serve as a great alternative to traditional gardening. Here are eight types of plants that can become great salad gardeners' friends.

Let's start with the plant that comes to mind immediately when people think about homegrown salads. One of the major advantages of lettuce is that it can be harvested several times. Unlike some other plants that should be pulled out after harvesting, it is possible to cut only outer leaves of lettuce and leave its center. It allows it to grow further and provides a much greater harvest. Besides, lettuce takes little space, grows easily in a pot, and comes in many varieties.

Another plant worth mentioning is spinach. Spinach is widely used due to its great taste and numerous benefits. High iron, vitamins, and antioxidant content in spinach helps make people healthier. Besides, it grows really fast and responds well to being harvested several times. This plant is particularly popular because it grows well in pots and partial shadow. Moreover, it can be used as a salad, smoothies, or cooked food ingredient.

These two plants can perfectly serve as salad ingredients because of their high nutritional value. Rocket provides salad bowls with a spicy taste, while kale supplies additional fibers and vitamins. Both plants can produce new leaves constantly if they are picked properly, i.e., from the outside part. Rocket and kale can grow easily in pots, which makes them perfect balcony gardening plants.

These herbs can serve as perfect salad ingredients if picked from the balcony. Besides, it allows adding flavor to the simplest dishes and giving them additional colors and aroma. Such herbs can easily be grown in a pot, and harvesting some of their branches won't stop their growth. According to experts, gardeners shouldn't trim more than half of the herbs to keep them alive.

Both spring onions and celery provide a crunchy texture to salads. Besides, spring onion is a very productive plant that can regrow after trimming and produce new branches after each trimming. On the contrary, celery needs careful harvesting to be able to regrow. In addition, these plants take up little space in comparison with many others. Hence, they are perfect for balcony gardening.

Both mint and Swiss chard are perfect representatives of balcony gardening plants. Mint is famous for its ability to grow actively and provide new leaves continuously after each picking. As for Swiss chard, it has big colorful leaves and tasty stems that can be harvested separately and continue growing. This way, gardeners have lots of options for using such plants.

As a rule, gardeners forget to include mustard greens in their list of salad garden plants. First of all, it can give a spicy taste to salads and sandwiches. Secondly, it grows really fast, and gardeners can harvest it continuously leaf-by-leaf. This plant shares some features with lettuce and spinach; however, it is relatively easier to look after.

Although cherry tomatoes do not belong to leafy plants, they are an essential ingredient of any salad. The great advantage of cherry tomatoes is that they can grow dozens or even hundreds of fruits. Moreover, cherry tomato plant can bear fruit for quite a long time under proper conditions.