Grow: radicchio and rocket

These leafy greens belong to a collection of plants described as ‘bitter’ but if your tastebuds like a spicy touch to a salad, radicchio and rocket are a must-grow in your backyard.

Radicchio

Radicchio (Cichorium intybus subsp. intybus) looks like red cabbage but is a type of chicory eaten for its peppery leaves. It is often encountered in Italian dishes such as salads or as a grilled dish. Radicchio is grown like lettuce.
Sow seed in early spring and harvest during spring and summer. To keep the bitter leaves coming, treat radicchio as a ‘cut and come again’ vegie by removing some of the leaves and allowing the root to reshoot. The inner leaves are not as bitter as the older outer leaves. Due to its propensity for bolting (forming flowers and seeds instead of leafy growth) in hot weather, radicchio grows best in mild climates or as a winter crop in hot zones.

Rocket

Highly popular rocket (Eruca sativa), is a quick, leafy crop that can easily self-seed, popping up in cracks in paving or around the edges of garden beds. Rocket with finely indented leaves is generally called wild rocket to distinguish it from rocket with thicker leaves. Both are grown in the same way.
To get started, sow seed over moist, loose soil. It will grow year-round in sun or part shade but is often seen as a cool-season crop (autumn, winter and early spring) as it may bolt to seed as the weather warms. To have rocket year-round, let some plants run to seed so it can self-seed where it’s happy, or make frequent sowings and keep plants well-watered over summer. Eat as a salad green or combine with fruit such as pear to complement the bitter flavou

Our Spring 2026 issue has even more growing ideas to add tasty flavours to summer dishes and it is available at your local newsagents, selected supermarkets and online.

Want to learn more about rocket?

Rocket