As Spring approaches, the tender perennial leaves are starting to appear in the garden. The longer, warmer days signal that it is time to sow the cool season vegetables. There are so many cool season veggies to love, and lettuce is one of the easiest to grow.
There are four main types of lettuce that I am going to discuss: crisphead, butterhead, romaine and loose leaf.
Crisphead includes the solid iceberg lettuce. Crisphead lettuce has tight, formed heads and generally has a very mild flavor. Most crisphead lettuce lack the nutritional punch found in the darker leafed lettuce.
Butterhead or loosehead lettuces are easier to grow than the crisphead varieties and have a head that isn't has solid. Loosehead lettuces have medium to dark green or red leaves and smooth, thick outer leaves folded around a loosely formed white to yellow head.
Romaine grows in warmer weather and can stand the summer heat. It grows tall, upright heads and thick green or red leaves with a solid vein (midrib) in the middle of each leaf.
Looseleaf lettuce is a lettuce you can cut and then harvest repeatedly. Mesclun is one of my favorite looseleaf mixes and includes a wide variety of greens. Seed companies mix up the seed composition to include such possibilities as arugula, endive, dandelion, herbs, kales and mache. The key to a perfect salad is to harvest the greens when they are small and tender.
Growing Tips
Here in Utah, plant your spring crop four weeks before the last frost. Do succession plantings to extend your harvest. If you are planting in the fall, plant four to seven weeks before the first expected frost. To start, sprinkle seeds over a loose bed of garden soil, then cover with about an eighth of an inch of damp, fine soil. Greens do very well in raised beds because raised beds have excellent drainage and are easy to work.
Growing Container Greens
Several varieties of lettuce do well in containers and also look beautiful in an edible landscape. Butterhead 'Tom Thumb' forms a small tennis-sized head and looks great in window boxes and hanging baskets. Swiss chard is always a show stopper with its beautiful colorful leaves.
Saving Seed
It is very easy to save lettuce seed. If you want to harvest seeds, allow several lettuce plants to go unharvested through the spring into the summer. The warm weather of summer will force the plants to bolt and send up seed heads. Once the plant has sent up a seed head put a bag or around the seeds to keep birds away and give the seeds time to dry. When the stalks are completely dry, cut and thrash the bolts to separate the chaff. Store seeds in a dry, cool location.
