How to Grow Lettuce All Year Round
Greens are the best, most nutritious, and freshest vegetables for your salad. They’re easy to grow, fast to harvest, and you’ll love eating them!
How to Grow Lettuce All Year Round
If you don’t have enough space in your garden to grow all of your own veggies, or if you simply want to make your own salads instead of buying them at the store, growing lettuce is a great way to do it. These plants are easy to germinate, they thrive in cool weather, and they’re a good way to get your garden off to a healthy start in the spring!
What’s the Best Fertilizer for Lettuce?
The best fertilizer for lettuce is an all-purpose, balanced, and nitrogen-rich organic fertilizer. This will help the leafy greens sprout, flourish, and develop strong roots for better overall growth.
When to Plant Salad Greens
The key to a successful and plentiful crop of salad greens is finding the right spot in your garden for them to grow. These cool season crops need a sunny location, though many varieties can tolerate partial shade. They also need a soil that is rich in nutrients, well-drained, and moisture-retentive.
When planting lettuce, make sure the seedbed is completely covered with well-anchored row covers to keep soil moisture in and bugs out. This is particularly important during the first few weeks of growth, when young seedlings are delicate and easily impacted by pests.
How to grow spring mix lettuce
If you’re not ready to grow your own greens from scratch, you can buy a variety of commercial salad mixes that come already prepared with seeds for all the different types of leafy greens that you can plant in your garden. These ready-to-grow mixes will give you a wide range of flavors, textures, and colors to choose from.
You can also grow your own salad blend from a mixture of various greens by direct sowing them into a garden bed. These small blocks of several kinds of greens will create a custom blend each time you harvest.
How to harvest leafy greens
Once your salad greens have reached a size you can handle, they’re ready for you to pick. You can harvest a few leaves at a time, or you can leave them on the plants and they will continue to produce new leaves as they grow.
Whether you’re using the traditional planting method or growing them in containers, you can keep your greens looking their best by harvesting them regularly. Then, you can wash them, remove the dirt, and put them in the fridge until you’re ready to eat them.
Growing Greens at Home
If you’re a beginner, you can start growing lettuce at home by starting small blocks of seeds indoors under lights. This will give you a good head start on your vegetable garden and save you money on seedlings.
For a more intensive approach, you can start transplanting the greens into your garden outside later on. This will keep them protected from frost and allow them to mature quickly and grow large.