Tips on Planting Lettuce in the Garden

See your average frost dates for spring and fall.

Here are seven tips and tricks on growing lettuce—so that your garden space yields the maximum harvest!

• Lettuce is best when it is young and tender. As it ages, it gets bitter. So I get a mix (there are many, but I especially like Johnny’s Allstar Lettuce Mix).

• Prepare the soil with some additives (kelp meal, azomite powder and old compost or manure) then fluff up the bed by either turning it or loosening it with a broadfork.

• I generally designate an entire bed to lettuce but stagger the plantings in several stages. I prepare the whole bed, but I only plant about 1/5^th of it at a time so that the harvest keeps coming! 
   
• I take out a half-bucket of the soil, then broadcast the seeds. By this, I mean that I throw them everywhere—as opposed to in rows. I then cover them with the soil in the bucket and I mark how far I have planted so I know where to begin next time. I water them well right away. This lets the “lettuce angels” know that I am prepared to take good care of them while they grow.
   
• Lettuce comes up fairly quickly—sprouts appear within a week! They often need to be thinned before they are big enough to eat, but the chickens love the tiny samples. As they get bigger, we eat the thinnings. They are so tender and sweet!

I continue to pick entire plants making room for the ones left to grow.

• After ten to fourteen days, I plant another patch. I continue to plant the bed until it is fully planted. By this time, the first lettuce is either gone or bitter so I pull up what is left and plant it again in the same spot. This way, we have lettuce all summer long and into the fall.
   
  • If you live in warmer climates, you can resow every other week until temperatures reach above 70 degrees F.
     
  • If you live in colder regions, lettuce can be covered with some row cover and it will continue to thrive into the fall.

I just recently perfected a dressing recipe which I will share here with you!

Dressing Recipe for Lettuce

• ¼ cup vinegar
• ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon powdered yellow mustard
• Few shakes garlic powder
• Small tablespoon maple syrup or honey
• Salt to taste

I mix this up and set it aside.

Then, I take one raw egg yolk (from our girls—only add this if you know your source is 100% healthy) and beat it in a measuring cup. To this, I add several minced anchovies (I mince them quite small). Stirring the previous mixture, I add in about 1/3 of it and mix it all well. Yum!

Lettuce Growing Guide
Click here for the complete Lettuce Growing Guide from The Old Farmer’s Almanac.