Equally at home in the vegetable garden, containers, or flower border, lettuce presents garden-fresh flavors and jewel-like colors that money just can't buy. And no produce market can match the freshness and variety of lettuce that you can grow in your own backyard.
How To Grow
From early spring straight into summertime, lettuce grows fast and flavorful. Choose a location that receives direct sunlight for a minimum of four to six hours. Lettuce requires rich, well-drained soil. Amend clay soils with compost or finely ground bark.
The most economical way to obtain the greatest variety of selections is to grow lettuce from seeds. Purchased transplants are faster, but your choices may be fewer.
Lettuce seeds germinate best in cool soil. If you want to be sure to get the earliest harvest possible, start two to four weeks before the last expected frost. That's February in the Middle South and March in the Upper South. Lower and Coastal South gardeners can grow lettuce all winter, beginning with the first planting in October. Seeds are inexpensive, so sow them every two to three weeks in different beds. In the years that you don't get a hard freeze, you will have an early crop. The taste of the first homegrown salad of the season is a lot like the first ripe tomato of summer. It's a long-awaited treat.
Remember to start with the more cold-tolerant lettuce selections in the cool months, and then sow the heat-tolerant ones later to help carry you through the warming days of spring. (See "Types of Lettuce.")
Lettuce seeds require light to germinate. Sprinkle seeds on top of the soil, and lightly cover or scratch them into the bed just below the surface of the soil. Lettuce must be kept moist throughout its growing season.
