Arugula is a green with zip. Long popular in France and Italy, the leaves of arugula provide a spicy zap when added to a salad.
This peppery green adds a unique bite to all kinds of salads and is delicious tucked into sandwiches as well.
It is the easiest plant to grow from seed and ready to harvest in less than a month. Also known as Garden Rocket, the plant is easy to grow indoors and requires very little care.
Arugula is high in Vitamin C and potassium and can be used in any recipe calling for basil. And,
How To Grow Arugula
Start from seed in winter or spring. Arugula will reseed itself, but you can collect seeds for future plantings.
Arugula is a colder weather crop and germinates best in a soil temperature in the range of forty to fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit. As soon as you work the soil (after the freeze is over) you can begin planting arugula.
The plant likes a pH level in the soil to be as neutral as possible. Test your soil to make sure the level sits above six and as close to seven as possible.
Locate arugula in a sunny location in the garden. It will tolerate partial sunlight. This makes the plant very versatile as far as where you can place it in the garden.
Sow seeds directly in the ground 1/8 inch deep and approximately 1 inch apart. This gives the seed the ability to break through the top soil and the roots to spread out and grow strong underneath.
Water regularly and frequently, but don’t overwater.
Arugula grows fast.When the leaves are two to three inches they are ready to be harvested. This usually occurs as soon as 3 weeks after the seeds germinate.
Simply cut the leaves off, give them a quick rinse and pat dry with a paper towel and they are ready for the salad.
Like leaf lettuce, mustard, or collards, arugula stretches skyward in hot weather, blooming and setting seeds.
You can pull it up when plant start to send up a bloom stalk from the center. You can also continue harvesting the leaves until they taste too strong.
Some gardeners cut the plants back to get another harvest as it tries to grow back. The bloom stalks may grow 24 to 36 inches tall and have little white flowers on top. These are pretty to add to a salad.
Flowering signals that the season is ending for arugula and you can replace it with a warm weather crop, unless you want to try cutting it back and eating it just a little longer.
How to Make a Simple and Healthy Arugula Salad
Things You’ll Need:
- 2 8 oz. of arugula
- 2 tbsp. pine nuts, toasted
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- Juice of one lemon
- White truffle oil, to taste
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1/2 lb. block Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Directions
Lightly toast the pine nuts in a small, heavy saute pan over a medium-low fire.
Wash the arugula and dry with paper towels.
Just before serving, dress the salad with the olive oil and lemon juice, season with the salt and pepper and drizzle with the truffle oil.
Scatter the pine nuts and shave Parmigiano-Reggiano on top with a vegetable peeler. Serve and enjoy.
Want to know more about arugula?
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Yours truly, Polly – Organic Gardener
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Your post on Arugula really got me thinking about the nutritional value of arugula – thanks for the data – mark
Sir i will like to know how to prepair it for useing for hair
It is proved that radicheta, spinach, chard, arugula, Brussels sprouts and other vegetables “dark” of Iron and that it benefits hair growth and fortification. NOTE: Eat raw in salads with lemon, oxidizes the iron in plant so that the human body can use it most.
This Arugula is it salad leaves
Is it possible for you to (or somebody else) tell me what is the best place on the internet to send flowers? All the websites I have discovered want too much delivery costs.
IF you want to save on delivery costs, FORGET National Services. Call the local florist and ask them. Most have decent prices. BUT, the problem with locals is that you do not know what quality they have. Talk to them about your order. THEN …Listen to what they say. And ask your self: Do they know their business. Or do they seem like a fly by nite mom/pop biz? These do not usually have good variety of selections to choose. REMEMBER: You get what you pay for. And yes, I believe in shopping to get a good price for what you get. Good luck.
Could you tell me how big it grows? I am planning a garden in pots and need to know how much space one plant takes up.
Arugula plants should be 1-2 in. apart. If you sow the seeds thickly, remove the excess seedlings. This will give you fewer, larger plants.
Give each plants 8″ of space when they are 4 ” tall
Thanks for sharing such a wonderful article. I thought only radish is the fastest and easiest plant to grow, as it take only 21 days to grow from seed to harvest.
I live in central Connecticut and the arugula in my tiny garden plot grew all winter and is now pruducing flowers. Should I pull the plants up or let them reseed. They are rather like dandelions in the way they show up all over the place. Are they naturally a perennial?
Phyllis, I have the same condition in Va. It grew all winter, now the bed is full of two feet tall flowering plants. I think I’ll pull it all up and if more seeds germinate then I’ll let some of them grow. My 4×8 garden is now 100% full of arugala! It re-seeded like crazy and it’s no longer young and tender. Last spring was my first experience with it, and it certainly grows like a weed!
I googled it to see if I should pull it up, and I got my answer.
Good luck gardening!
Arugala in Virginia