It has been so long since I have written a gardening opinion (could that be to do with the fact that few plants are beige?), that I can’t remember how to start.
I used to have a formula, which usually ended up by fermenting said plant and drinking the alcoholic consequences.
Sadly, you cannot make wine with lettuce, which is maybe why I’m finding this one difficult to get into.
Right, let’s get on the soapbox, and have a wee shout. NO-ONE SHOULD EVER BUY LETTUCE.
Whether you have an allotment or a window box; a smallholding or a large one; a flat or a well-rounded; a de Thame garden or a Wilde one; YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE.
There is a lettuce for every location, in every season.
Lettuce will grow in conventional garden soil. Aspen states the obvious. Lettuce will also grow in a gro-bag, or in a pot, on any soil-based or soil-less compost. Lettuce will grow in a tub on the patio, in a pot by the back door, in a window-box, on a balcony, on a roof-garden, or even on the lavvie window-sill.
If you have none of these, you are an alien, and don’t deserve lettuce.
Cos lettuce is favoured by the supermarkets these days, because it keeps well. For the home-lettuce-grower, Cos is a good choice because it is particularly hardy, will grow in almost any conditions, and has a very long season. Cos has largely replaced the traditional Butterhead varieties – you know, the round limp ones which look like they have a heart but you can never find it. Butterheads have a short season anyway, so avoid. Avoid particularly any variety bearing the name “All the Year Round”, because they never are.
Want to grow lettuce out of season? Got a bright windowsill? Try Little Gem (a small Cos variety) at any time of year. Use young. The small young leaves are the tastiest anyway, and they may not heart in the winter months. Who cares? Use the young leaves and sow some more. It’s gotta be better than the limp, chemically-preserved supermarket pre-washed, bagged leaves.
Fancy a bit of colour? The red-tinged Lolla Rosso which you pay premium prices for in the supermarket, is one of the easiest, trouble free lettuces you can grow. And it’s a cut-and-come-again – that is, you don’t harvest the whole lettuce, you just pick the outer leaves, and the plant will continue to grow. Given the right conditions, this type of lettuce will produce leaves for three months or more before running to seed.
Which brings me to my beloved Frisby.
Frisby is a green cut-and-come-again. Frisby will grow anywhere – in the garden, in a pot, on a windowsill, in a gro-bag – given my standards of house-proud-ness, Frisby would probably grow on my sitting room carpet.
Frisby will grow at any time of year, even right through the winter, given a little protection. I have sown Frisby under glass in November, and have been masticating her tender leaves in early February. Yes, here, in the frozen North.
There is only one barrier to self-sufficiency in lettuce. Imagination.
If you don’t try, you won’t succeed, and will forever be condemned to consuming the chemically preserved limp produce of our supermarket shelves.
If this wasn’t a Lettuce category, I would go on to tell you how easy it is to grow Rocket, Lamb’s Lettuce (Corn Salad), and Cilantro (Leaf Coriander).
Maybe another time.
Meanwhile, I will content myself with extolling the virtues of my beloved Frisby. Maybe if I could ferment her, I would turn over a new leaf.
very helpful by (100%):
