Perfect for a garden of any size, lettuce is one of the easiest vegetables to grow, and it can me planted amongst a variety of other plants, making it a space-saving crop with big yields. There is a wide variety of lettuce type that home gardeners can choose from. Crisphead lettuce, more commonly known as iceberg, is a slow growing lettuce that handles heat well, while romaine lettuce grows quicker and is packed with nutrients. Lettuce is a great source of daily vitamins, including vitamin K, C, and B.

So you’ve decided to plant lettuce in your fantasitc garden, nice! According to our research on lettuce, we don’t recommend planting parsley nearby.

Lettuce needs a nitrogen-rich soil to grow in, so be sure to amend your planting area with blood meal or composted manure before sewing the lettuce seeds in rows with about 6-18 inches between each row. As sprouts begin to emerge, thin out the growth to provide ample space for the lettuce type to fill in. Lettuce tastes the sweetest and is most tender when grown in cooler weather.  It will grow best in temperatures ranging from 45-80 degrees. Anything warmer can make the lettuce bolt and go to flower, rendering the lettuce inedible.

There are two ways to harvest your lettuce crop, and they depend on how much of your crop you’d like to use right away. For a salad’s worth of lettuce, simply pick a few leaves from the outer portion of the lettuce. When you’re ready to harvest the entire lettuce head, simply cut the head at the soil line. A full sized head lettuce will grow to 6-8 inches in diameter.