Not only is it a popular green that restaurants seem to put on everything, arugula is also super easy to start from seed and grow in your kitchen garden. After living and growing in many different climates, I can attest that arugula is one of those super greens that just keeps producing until the ground is frozen. Plus, you can harvest a ton from every little plant.
My Rooted Garden clients in Houston will have tons of arugula growing when it’s 95 degrees plus in the summer and few other plants can stand the heat. That makes arugula a must-have when you’re missing that garden-fresh taste of salads in the hottest months. And here in Chicago, I plant arugula seed as early as February and am harvesting by late March. In fact, arugula is one of the first things I get to harvest in the cool season. Clearly, arugula is a fail-proof plant to grow.
Arugula is a member of the Brassica family, which includes kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and mustard. Most of those guys need a lot of space in the garden, but arugula is the weird cousin—every family has at least one, right? Arugula would grow bigger if you let it reach full maturity, but its entire growth pattern is different from other Brassicas.
when to plant
My goal is to grow arugula throughout the spring, summer, and fall. I’ll start planting before my last frost date, as soon as the soil is workable. Then, I’ll come in and plant more every two to three weeks, all the way until four to six weeks before my first fall frost date. For me, that means I can keep going until late November or so, especially if I use a frost cover over my beds.
how to plant
Arugula seeds look like kale seeds, which is to say, they’re tiny. The simplest way to sow these seeds is to take a bunch between your fingers and rub your fingers together to scatter the seeds over your raised bed, right on top of the soil. Use your hand to rough up the soil a bit after. You don’t want to bury arugula seed too deep—it really just needs to make soil contact.
Water your seeds in well, and you’ll start to see seedlings emerge in six to ten days.
how to harvest
As you probably know, I don’t follow normal spacing guidelines because I always intend to harvest before plants reach their full maturity.
One way to harvest is to use needle nose pruners to cut one stem at a time, right at the base of the plant, careful not to take too much from one plant. I harvest this way when plants are just starting out to preserve younger leaves, though this method is definitely more time-intensive.
Another way to harvest is the ponytail-chop method. Grab a bunch of leaves in your hand like you’re gathering hair for a ponytail and cut all the leaves at once at the base, leaving only about one to two inches of greens at the bottom. You’ll take all the older leaves this way but leave the baby leaves coming up from the very center of the plants to now have a chance to grow with more airflow. This method is similar to what commercial farmers do to harvest many leaves at once.
A word of caution with the ponytail chop: We want to be able to come back and get as many harvest as possible from each plant, right? That’s why you want to avoid cutting too deep on the plant. Leaving one or two inches is usually enough to keep the plant growing and producing.
I harvest from one area each day and move around my raised beds throughout the week.
Just from one little area, you’ll have enough arugula to add to wraps or salads, throw on top of a pizza, or even make pesto.
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That’s all there is to it. Now, if you’re saying, “But, Nicole, what about the soil and the watering and all that stuff?” head over to our courses and explore our Salad Garden School. This course is designed to help you set up beds and teach you how to find success growing organic salad leaves. You’ll find everything you need to grow arugula with me the right way!