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This is something that I had to grow as I heard that home grown lettuce is awesome. So I figured I would give it a shot. I grew leaf lettuce so what follows is how to grow lettuce of leaf form.

Sow your seed in early spring. Plant your seed in 1/8 inch deep soil in rows that are six inches apart in all direction. Lettuce can be started indoors for early harvesting. As a tip, lettuce likes cool weather, when it's warm weather the lettuce will be bitter and easily go to seed. So as soon as the weather warms up start planting you lettuce in partially shaded areas. Plus lettuce is extremely productive in the fall do to the cooler conditions so take advantage of this and plant then.

If you like lettuce and you want more of it then plant your seeds in two week intervals to take full advantage of the harvesting time. If you don't have an area that doesn't get a lot of sun then plant your seeds in containers that can give you a soil depth of 9 to 12 inches. That way you can move the plants around your yard as needed.

If you are a salad lover then you have to try home grown lettuce. But I must give you a warning. Make sure that you really love lettuce. These plants are very productive and once planted you will find that you end up with way more lettuce then you expected. If you do maybe you can set up something like we did in our neighborhood. We have a garden exchange. Where everyone in the neighborhood exchanges things that have grown to much of for things that they need. What ever you do just be prepared to share your lettuce harvest because trust me you will have a lot of it. I have a family of four and I still had to give away most of my harvest before it went bad.

As a salad lover and a gardener I would say that growing lettuce was well worth my time. I used in all sorts of summer salad and impressed my family with the a great home grown addition to our summer picnics. So give it a shot. Try it in head form, leaf form or what ever you prefer and you will find it hard to go back to that lettuce that you buy in your local grocery store. I did!

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