Harvest to Table

Lettuce grows best in cool weather and sunny locations. Spring, mid-summer, and early fall are the times of year to plant lettuce, but you can grow lettuce in the summer even in warm regions if you choose heat-tolerant and bolt-resistant varieties. There are lettuce cultivars that are ready for picking in 45 days and others [...]

Lettuce is the most popular leafy vegetable. You can plant enough leaf lettuce for a family of four in a 1-sqaure foot area, enough head lettuce in a 2-square foot area. Plant spring lettuce between rows of larger crops such as cabbage or broccoli. Lettuce can be sown in the garden as early as four [...]

Lettuce is easily started in seed-starting trays or small pots. Lettuce started indoors can be set into the garden when plants have about four leaves, usually in three to four weeks from sowing. Set lettuce in the garden 12 inches (30cm) apart if you are planting for full heads and closer if you are going [...]

Most varieties of lettuce require cool weather or slight shading for best growth. Grow lettuce in the cool part of the year, when temperatures range in the 50s and 60sF. You can plant lettuce as soon as the ground can be worked in spring. Grow leafy varieties where the weather is warmer. Lettuce grows well [...]

Lettuce is a cool-season crop which must mature before the weather gets warm. Sow lettuce seed indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the average last frost date in spring; transplant seedlings to the garden when they are about 4 inches tall. Direct sow lettuce in the garden 4 to 6 weeks before the average last [...]

Ready to stretch your growing season: get an early start in spring or keep the season going in autumn? Lettuce is your choice. Lettuce does not like warm days and nights, so the cool time of the year is lettuce season. You can lengthen your growing season dramatically with a lettuce box–that’s a cold frame [...]

There’s a reason they call it butter lettuce: it melts in your mouth. Butter lettuce is buttery and tender from the first bite. Serve red butter lettuce alone or as a colorful addition to salad greens. Red butter lettuce is a good match to light vinaigrette or lemon and oil mix. It is a colorful [...]

There are five general types or classifications of lettuce: Butterhead, Crisphead, Looseleaf, Romaine, and Celtuce. Butterhead and Crisphead types have crisp leaves that form compact hearts. Looseleaf and Romaine types grow best in cool weather and do not form significant hearts. Celtuce is a cross between celery and lettuce and is valued for its stem. [...]

Lettuce is the most popular of the leafy salad vegetables belonging to the same family as chicory and endive. There are hundreds of varieties of lettuce, and each may peak at a different time of the year, but lettuce served mixed in a salad, topping a sandwich or taco, or braised—as the French seem partial [...]