Garden cress, or Lepidium sativum, goes by many names: poor man's pepper, pepper cress, pepperwort, pepper grass, aleev, and mustard cress. Whatever you call it, cress is an extremely fast and easy-to-grow cool season herb with a flavor similar to watercress or arugula. Eat it wherever you would typically use lettuce or another raw leafy salad green. It has many uses in the kitchen and is also a useful medicinal herb.

• Spicy Greens & Medicinal Herb - Garden cress, or Lepidium sativum, is a fast-growing edible herb with a spicy horseradish flavor. The leaves are delicious at full grown stage or as baby greens for eating on salads, sandwiches, and other culinary uses. The seed, root, stems, and leaves are used as a medicinal herb to support women's health, digestion, respiration, and circulation.
• Versatile Plants - Although garden cress is difficult to store long-term, sprouting it from seeds is very easy and the plants will easily self-sow. Due to the quick germination rate, these fast-growing herbs are often used in school experiments or to teach students about plant growth. It also is used to test compost quality (poor compost will harm the plants and interfere with their germination). Cress can be grown indoors in hydroponic or container gardens in any zone. In Zones 6-9, it can be grown in the outdoor garden during fall and spring. In hotter weather, grow it in partial shade.