Lettuce All Year Round: Leaf Lettuce, Head Lettuce & Corn Salad

Lettuce is the most rewarding vegetable for beginners: fast, space-saving, and with a bit of planning the harvest never stops. The key is staggered sowing – a small batch every 2–3 weeks instead of the whole bed at once.

The Main Types

• Leaf and cut-and-come-again lettuce (e.g. Lollo, oakleaf): harvest the outer leaves, the heart keeps growing – one sowing supplies you for weeks
• Head lettuce: the classic; needs 8–10 weeks to form a firm head
• Arugula & Asian greens: ready to harvest in 4–6 weeks, also good for late-summer sowing
• Lamb's lettuce (corn salad): the winter salad – sown in August/September, harvested from October to March

Sowing & Care

• From March outdoors (pre-growing on the windowsill from February), then resow every 2–3 weeks
• Light germinators: just press the seeds in or cover them with a very thin layer of soil
• Summer heat: above 20 °C soil temperature, lettuce germinates poorly – in high summer sow in the evening and provide shade, or choose heat-tolerant varieties
• Watering: regularly, but keep the leaves as dry as possible (rot)
• Slugs: young lettuce is their favorite target – collars, evening patrols, or raised beds help

Harvest

• Harvest in the morning: the leaves are crispest then
• Cut head lettuce whole before it "bolts" (shoots upward and turns bitter)
• Harvest leaf lettuce from the outside – never the heart

Fresh Stays Fresh

Lettuce isn't meant for storage – its strength is the short trip from bed straight to plate. Don't be annoyed by bolted plants: let them flower, harvest the seed, and resow for free next year.