Barbara Pleasant: I Love Lettuce!

From Starter Vegetable Gardens:

"The types of lettuce you see in supermarkets are but a small sample of the varied lettuces available to gardeners. It will take a lifetime to try them all, which sounds like a life well spent to me."

SSeeds for Spectacular Salads

You'll need to scroll down to the end of Turtle Tree Seed's lettuce page to find a packet of the best lettuce seed mixture I've ever grown, the 'Lettuce Mix of Turtle Tree Favorites'. Shown at upper right, it's truly a beautiful, diversified mix!

Lettuce seed mixtures make for many beautiful salads, and give you a chance to discover varieties you didn't know existed. I'm so enamored of the 'Speckled Amish Butterhead' in the Turtle Tree mix that I hate to pick it, but harvest I must.

The same goes for another lettuce seed mixture I love, the Blush Batavian mix from Renee's Garden - a trio of French crisp types that put pale iceberg lettuce to shame. Lots of cool rain has led to a banner year for spring lettuce, but even with shade from midday sun, warm temps will soon put an end to the spring salad season. The second season starts indoors in August, and then September becomes salad month once again.

Try growing summer lettuce in the shade or taller crops, as I've done here with broccoli. Tomatoes work well as shady neighbors, too.

More Pleasant Reading     on Lettuce:

At Mother Earth News:

All About Growing Lettuce (2008)

Try This Technique: Grow Lettuce Under Shade (2008)

How Do I Control Slugs and Snails Organically? (2008)

Grow a Quick Crop of Lettuce Indoors (2009)

At Grit:

Plant a Salad Garden in Fall (2006)

Back to Vegetables and Herbs!