Garden Guru: Salad days on a sill

Wheatgrass combinations make an extra nutritious drink. Remember to give seedlings a good start in life by placing them in a dark and warm spot. Photo / Supplied

There's a vegetable plot you can set up which is not only productive year-round but is small enough to nestle on a windowsill. The latest trend in gourmet dining is for micro-greens - salad crops which are harvested just a few weeks after they have germinated.

For decades, keen health nuts and vegetarians have claimed that catching plants at this tender age ensures they have the greatest nutrient activity of all raw foods.

This is because seedlings are actually still in the process of growing - at the peak of their life force - and the body can more easily digest such goodies than it can in cooked or more mature vegetables and salads. And because actively growing cells are high in RNA and DNA, they are said to have a powerful regenerating effect on the body. And chefs love them for their delicacy and versatility.

Traditional sprouted seeds and lentils, such as bean sprouts, are grown in the dark in jars and require a strict regime of flushing and soaking. They are harvested while pale and before they develop true leaves.

But micro-greens are grown for longer in the light so that they develop first their proper leaves, rich in nutritious chlorophyll and other pigments. They are grown in compost or on a thin substrate such as sponge or paper towels and are picked after 14 to 24 days.

Most of the vegetables which work well as micro-greens are regular garden varieties, including basils, parsleys, and the peppery tasting radish and cabbage family.

Some, such as nutty-tasting sunflower, broccoli and wheatgrass, are valued primarily as super-foods to be liquidised and added to health smoothies.

Others, such as beets, kales and red cabbage, provide attractive colours for garnishing. Onions and garlic have a delicate pungency when young which is less confrontational than fully grown plants - just the thing for fussy chefs concocting delicate salads to garnish a sandwich, a soup or something more substantial.

Remember sowing cress on a damp paper towel in an old margarine tub as a kid?

That's basically the technique you need for today's micro-greens. It's important to buy specially cleaned "sprouting seed" from a reputable company because other seed can be contaminated with soil-borne organisms.

The amount needed makes this a relatively expensive way to grow food. However, if you buy seeds in bulk from specialist suppliers, such as Kings Seeds, and consider the health benefits of eating a relatively small amount at a time of year when other fresh vegetables are not readily available, sprouting your own becomes an attractive indoor addition to your home-grown arsenal.

Expensive dedicated indoor growing systems are available online with irrigators and fine mesh screens on which seedlings germinate, but it's just as easy to do it yourself, especially if you are just starting out. Seed can be sown thickly on either a shallow layer of soil-less compost laid in a seed tray or on a damp paper towel placed over a thin sponge base which has been soaked in water. You can use regular kitchen wipes placed on a tray or icecream tub.

Place the seed for the first few days in a warm place, such as the kitchen. The seeds should be kept in the dark at first, so cover them with a lid. When they sprout, move them to a window or sunny spot. Once they are growing and have a first set of proper leaves after the plain seed leaves, you can harvest them with scissors just as you would with cress.

I like to keep several trays going at once by sowing every week or so - that way you always have a fresh supply. With a compost base you may even get a second crop for your money.