• Sowing: August to September, in several sowings
• Frost hardiness: The closed heads are much more frost-sensitive than young plants, which can cope with temperatures as low as -10°C.
• Harvest: November to February. Lettuce heads can be harvested all through winter and might only perhaps need a light brushwood covering to protect them from black frosts.
• Recommended varieties: ‘May Queen’ is a very robust butterhead lettuce that’s great for overwintering and can also be harvested all winter through in mild conditions. We also strongly recommend 'Meraviglia delle quattro stagioni', a very robust butterhead variety for growing all year round, with reddish outer leaves and a light green heart.

• Sowing: Broadcast outdoors from August to October to produce a carpet of salad leaves.
• Frost hardiness: The loose leaf rosettes of leaf lettuce are significantly more robust and frost-hardy than closed-head lettuces. When frozen the leaves are very sensitive to wind and any kind of contact. Even so they can recover when they thaw.
• Harvest: Can be harvested all through winter. We recommend covering with a fleece to prevent freezing, and picking individual outer leaves.
• Recommended varieties: Lollo Bionda and Lollo Rosso cope with frosts very well – they’re our absolute favourites.

• Sowing: July and August
• Frost hardiness: Endive can cope with temperatures down to -5°C, in colder temperatures it will need a fleece covering or alternatively should be grown in a hotbed or cold frame. Escarole endives cope with frost better than the frisée varieties.
• Harvest: Harvesting in late autumn can extend through into December, depending on weather conditions. If extended periods of frost are likely you can also harvest the lettuce heads and store them.
• Recommended varieties: Definitely 'Green Escarole' – a very robust variety that also stores well.

• Sowing: Sow from mid-June to late July for winter harvesting.
• Frost hardiness: Most varieties tolerate freezing temperatures as low as around -5°C – or even -7°C for leaf chicory. Here, too, fleece covers can prolong the harvesting period a little during extended frosts.
• Harvest: All varieties can definitely be harvested outdoors through into late autumn – or even longer in mild conditions. Rosette-forming radicchio varieties are suitable for overwintering and will develop earlier in spring. Leaf chicory and radicchio also store very well.
• Recommended varieties: Radicchio 'Palla rossa' and 'Variegata di Castelfranco', also known as orchid lettuce. Both are very good winter lettuces for storing and can cope with light frosts.

• Sowing: Can be sown outdoors from March to September. Flea beetles will be less of a problem later in the year.
• Frost hardiness: These salad leaves will cope with frosts of between -7 and -12°C, depending on the variety.
• Harvest: These vegetables can be harvested almost all year round. The first leaves can be harvested as baby salad leaves after just 8 weeks in winter. In summer heat the plants flower quickly, bringing the harvest to an end. Some varieties will also fail in extended periods of frost if unprotected.
• Recommended varieties: Especially frost-resistant varieties are Mizuna, Red Giant, Rouge Metis and Tatsoi.

• Sowing: Broadcast in several sowings from July to September.
• Frost hardiness: Selected varieties are frost-hardy to -15°C and can even be harvested in snowy conditions. Frozen leaves are susceptible to damage, though. For this reason it’s a good idea to cover the plants with fine brushwood or a fleece.
• Harvest: During late autumn and winter, potentially through into spring.
• Recommended varieties: We recommend our winter-hardy variety 'Dark Green Full Heart'.

• Sowing: Winter purslane seeds will only germinate at temperatures below +12°C. For this reason they should only be sown from August to late September onward. Sow in rows, mixing the tiny seeds with quartz sand so as not to sow them too densely.
• Frost hardiness: The plants are very frost-hardy – to below -20°C.
• Harvest: The leaves can be harvested continually throughout the winter. Don’t leave it too long to harvest the leaves or the stems will get very long.
• Recommended varieties: Winter Purslane

Here we’re including both herbs and special salad leaves that can also be available in winter.

This covers such valuable winter salads as spinach, winter cress, watercress, rocket salad, scurvygrass, bloody dock and buck’s horn plantain as well as alexanders and chop suey greens.
Then there are the young shoots of winter peas, for example – a real delicacy in a mixed salad in late autumn.