Crisp, Tasty Lettuce
Garden Planting Guide
Plant asparagus now from dormant crowns for delicious, low-priced spears for years to come. Fill your spring flower beds with pansies and violas in shades of blue, yellow, red, pink, and purple.
- Prune wisteria trees and vines by cutting out unwanted long runners and removing old seed pods. Avoid damaging flower buds clustered at the end of short branches.
- Plant raspberry, blackberry, loganberry, and boysenberry vines now for home-grown berries.
- Cut back suckers on lilac bushes. Wait until they bloom to prune, then bring fragrant branches indoors.
Lettuce Varieties and Growing Tips
An ever-expanding selection of lettuce varieties adds variety, texture, and color to the salad bowl. Lettuce is divided into four groups:
- Crisphead: Forms a tight, firm head of crisp, light-green leaves. Intolerant of hot weather and bolts easily. Needs 80–90 days to mature; best grown in spring and fall.
- Butterhead (Boston or Bibb): Smaller, softer heads with loosely folded leaves. Outer leaves may be green or reddish, with buttery-flavored cream-colored inner leaves.
- Buttercos: Upright growth like romaine but with a butterhead-like heart and waxy leaves.
- Leaf: Open growth habit, no tight head. Varieties range from frilled/crinkled to deeply lobed, in colors from light green to red and bronze. Fastest-maturing and easiest to grow.
- Romaine (Cos): Upright, cylindrical heads of tightly folded leaves, up to 10 inches tall. Outer leaves are medium green; inner leaves greenish-white. Red romaine varieties are also available.
Lettuce is a cool-season vegetable, thriving in cool, moist conditions. Seedlings tolerate light frost and perform best in spring and fall. Plant seeds early in spring or set out transplants starting in early March. In summer, provide morning and late-afternoon sun, avoiding midday heat by planting in the shade of taller plants.
Soil and Planting
Lettuce grows well in loose, fertile, sandy loam soils rich in organic matter. Prepare soil with well-rotted manure or compost and top-dress with alfalfa meal. Ensure soil is well-drained and moist but not soggy.
- For continuous harvests, make successive plantings by setting out plants and starting seeds simultaneously.
- Space leaf lettuce plants 9 inches apart and head lettuce 12 inches apart.
Harvesting
Harvest all lettuce types when full size but young and tender:
- Leaf, butterhead, buttercos, or romaine: Remove outer leaves or cut the plant about an inch above the soil surface for a potential second harvest.
- Crisphead: Pick when the center is firm.
Start your lettuce patch now for fresh, home-grown salads straight from the garden.