What Grows Well With Arugula?

Spinach

• Spinach is packed with vitamin A and can be tossed into a salad with pears or cooked into a flaky spinach pie. Like arugula, spinach grows best in the spring and fall when temperatures are cool. If grown in the summer, the plants will produce flowers rather than an abundance of leaves. Plant spinach seeds directly into loose soil. Once the plants grow, you can snip off a few leaves as you need them.

Lettuce

• Lettuce isn't a nutritional superstar like other greens, but it does add a fresh crunch to sandwiches and is the key ingredient for most green salads. Lettuce seeds are tiny, so you will end up planting too many no matter how hard you try. Once the seeds sprout, thin them to allow about 6 inches between each plant. You can harvest individual leaves of loose leaf lettuce such as red leaf lettuce, but you must harvest the entire head of crisp-head lettuces like Butterhead or Iceberg.

Peas

• A batch of fresh spring peas is a welcome treat. Varieties such as Sugar Snap have thick edible pods with a sweet crunch. Plant peas in early spring or fall alongside your arugula. Provide a trellis for the peas to grow up so they don't grow over your arugula plants. Peas also benefit arugula by adding nitrogen to the soil. Nitrogen is a key nutrient for leafy greens.

Beets

• Beet roots take time to mature, but the seeds need to be planted in early spring when the weather is still cool. Plant beets between your rows of arugula. By the time the weather warms and arugula starts going to seed and needs to be removed, your beets will be nearing harvest time. Beet greens can be cooked like spinach or you can slice and roast the roots for a tasty and pretty side dish.