Lettuce is a great choice for a container garden, and you can grow either the "head" or "loose leaf" varieties quite easily. Some people prefer the crisp sweetness of head lettuce, but it will take much longer to grow to maturity. You can, however, pull off the outer leaves for your salad and leave the rest to grow.
My personal preference is for loose leaf lettuce, specifically the spicy, bitter, and beautiful Mesclun blend that you pay a fortune for at the grocery store.
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| Mesclun |
I love the variety of color and shape!
Any loose leaf variety will grow quite quickly, so you'll be able to harvest your salad in just a few weeks. And harvesting is so much fun! Just take your scissors and snip! Leave the roots and about an inch of lettuce in the pot, and it will just keep growing. Before you know it you'll be harvesting again!
All lettuces prefer cooler weather. You can plant the teeny tiny seeds directly into your pot as soon as the danger of frost has passed. (Or sooner, if you're willing to bring the pot in overnight!)
Lettuce also prefers sun or partial shade. If you're balcony or patio gets full sun, try hiding your lettuce pots behind your other veggies, under your patio table, or in the shadiest spot you can find. Even if your lettuce won't survive the mid-summer heat, you can still plant a spring and a fall crop. (Plant another batch of seeds as soon as the weather starts to cool.)
If you're a real salad freak, you may want to stagger your planting - plant a new pot of seeds every week or two so that there's always plenty ready to harvest. (I have to say, though, I always seem to have more than I can eat!)
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| Collard Greens |
If salad isn't your thing, you may want to try cabbage, collard greens, swiss chard, or spinach. Make sure you check the package instructions when planting your seeds. Some greens, such as collard, will require more sun (and will stand up to the heat better). And don't forget plenty of water!
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| Spinach |
How big of a pot do you recommend to use for lettuce?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry - I meant to mention this:
ReplyDeleteLettuce has a very shallow root system, so you don't have to worry about a deep pot at all. Loose leaf lettuce doesn't get very big, either - You want to cut it when it's just a few inches high, so literally any container you've got sitting around will do. (Bigger container = more salad, obviously.)
Ideally I would recommend a long, rectangular, window-box style planter. You could plant one row of lettuce along one side, and then 2-3 weeks later plant another row next to it. This way you'll have lettuce pretty continuously all summer... Or at least until the heat gets unbearable.
what about collard greens, do you think we could grow them in a 1 gallon ice cream bucket with holes in the bottom? What about salad in the ice cream bucket?
ReplyDeleteYes! Go for it! I love the idea of re-purposing containers that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Lettuce has a pretty small root system, so it doesn't need much space at all. Collards can grow in a small container but will need plenty of space to grow big leaves. Don't plant more than one or two per container - Or plant a few and harvest most of them when they're small (But still delicious!) and leave one or two to keep growing.
ReplyDelete