Winter salads to sow in summer

Grow the salads in a raised bed, divided into sections for different varieties, to make it easier to protect crops from the cold. They'll survive chilly weather outside, but use cloches and fleece in colder weather to keep your salad leaves looking fresh and pristine.

Discover salad crops to sow or plant out in August, below.

Pak choi 'Rubi' F1

Pak choi 'Rubi' wins winter beauty contests, hands down. The broad, lime-green stems contrast with the flared burgundy leaves, darkening to deepest purple in frost. Harvest young leaves on a cut-and-come-again basis to add colour to salads, or harvest the mature head to use in stir fries.

Lettuce 'Black Seeded Simpson'

Lettuce 'Black Seeded Simpson' is among the finest flavoured lettuces that can be grown. It has rumpled, generous leaves, that are super-hardy, even out in the open.

Corn salad

Corn salad is slow to get going, but do persevere because its delicately flavoured leaves last right through winter, growing enthusiastically in the slightest spell of sunshine.

Komatsuna

Komatsuna is an easy-to-grow Oriental salad with an interesting, mild-cabbage flavour. It's very hardy, but a covering of horticultural fleece will prevent any cold damage to leaves.

Spring onion 'White Lisbon Winter Hardy'

As its name suggests, 'White Lisbon Winter Hardy' is the winter-proof version of the old favourite, the spring onion. Sow successionally from August up to mid-October. Tops can be snipped in midwinter and bulbs harvested in February.

Mustard 'Red Frills'

Mustard 'Red Frills' is a pretty Oriental mustard with filigree purple-stained leaves. Its flavour packs a peppery punch - a little goes a long way.