Not only have the recipes for preparing lettuce become more diverse, but also the varieties that you can easily grow in your home garden. With the right combination of different salads, you can harvest almost all year round.
How to grow lettuce in your own garden?
To successfully grow lettuce in your own garden, you need a location in full sun and humus-rich, well-ventilated soil. Types of lettuce such as “May King”, “Ice Salad”, “Attraction” and “Merveille des quatre saisons” are particularly suitable. Regular sowing and sufficient moisture ensure a continuous harvest.
The ideal salad bed
Choose a full sun location for your lettuce so you can avoid unnecessarily high nitrate levels. In addition, solid heads of lettuce do not form in the shade. You don't necessarily have to plant an entire bed; lettuce can also be used as a gap filler because it is harvested after just a few weeks. The soil should be humus and well aerated, preferably with plenty of compost in it.
Which salad would you like?
The selection of lettuce varieties for the home garden is so large that every gardener should find a suitable variety. A distinction must be made between summer and winter salads, but the color of the leaves and the taste of the salad also play an important role. Look for robust varieties; these are more undemanding and have fewer problems with pests such as powdery mildew or aphids.
Here you will find a small selection of suitable types of lettuce:
- “May King” has delicate yellow-green leaves and is particularly suitable for early cultivation.
- “Ice lettuce” forms very firm heads and is particularly crunchy, but is not so suitable for outdoor use. It is better to grow it in a greenhouse.
- “Attrakion” is one of the heat-resistant varieties.
- “Merveille des quatre saisons” has reddish leaves and is well suited for cultivation from spring to autumn.
Sowing and harvesting
Lettuce can be grown well in a cold frame (€329.00 on Amazon) or in pots. So that the small plants can be planted out more easily later, they should not be sown too densely. Two to three seeds per pot are ideal, or a row spacing of around 25 centimeters. This distance should also be maintained between the individual heads later.
Depending on the variety, you can harvest the first heads of lettuce after about five to seven weeks. However, don't plant too many heads of lettuce at once or the lettuce will start bolting before you can harvest it. It is better to reseed or replant every two to four weeks, then you can look forward to a regular harvest.
Tips & Tricks
For an early harvest, grow plants under glass or buy them from your gardener. Don't plant your lettuce next to parsley or celery, that's not good for it. Lettuce plants need sufficient moisture to prevent them from bolting.
