There is nothing like a sandwich or salad in the summer that includes just lettuce (or kale) just picked from your garden. Guaranteed chemical free and healthy to eat!

Lettuce will be direct sown at the same time I transplant all my Kale varieties (see previous blog).  Also, as space permits, it will be time to plant my beets and radish. I’ll highlight those in upcoming blogs.

The lettuce varieties below complement each other in your salad bowl.  Here in my area, it is more difficult to grow head or bib lettuce to my satisfaction, so I stick to the ones that produce and taste the best of the loose-leaf varieties.

• Black Seeded Simpson from Burpee is one we have planted every year for all our years of gardening.

• EZ Serve from Burpee has a nice leaf and texture.

• Freckles from True Leaf Market is not always available, so we were excited to see True Leak carried it.

• Green Ice from Burpee is one of the sweetest lettuce varieties and has big clusters of ruffled leaves. Easy picking, too!

• Red Sails from True Leaf Market is another mass producer like the Green Ice.  It is sweet and gorgeous in your salads.

You can find links to all these seed sites on the main Gardening Zone page.

Lettuce is ready to start harvesting 3-4 weeks from direct sowing.  I keep sowing new plantings all summer, whenever space opens up. You can never have too much lettuce!

“If you’ve never experienced the joy of accomplishing more than you can imagine, plant a garden.” — Robert Brault, Author

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