Racing the Sun To Get Lettuce Planting Done

I consult the LSU AgCenter Vegetable Planting Guide to let me know when to plant items in our growing zone, how deep to plant the seeds and how far apart to space them.  As I was perusing the Planting Guide, I realized that September 30th is the last date recommended for planting lettuce in our area.  So when I got home from work on September 29th, I got my rear end in gear.  I had a 15 foot long row all worked up and weed-free.  Its 30 inch width was perfect in allowing me to plant seeds in three furrows I made across the top of the row in which to place the tiny lettuce seeds.  You can see the furrows below if you look closely.

Furrows in the Lettuce Row - ready for planting

Let's talk a little bit about lettuce.  I like salads.  I like to add different toppings and vegetables and a nice vinaigrette dressing on top.  Let's be honest, though.  Salads aren't filling.  Will they help you to survive in very difficult times when food is short?  Hmmm, probably not.  In survival cases, your garden better contain root crops like potatoes, carrots and the like that contain more calories and nutrition than lettuce.  But for non-apocalyptic times, a fresh garden salad is a nice complement to a meal.

I have five different varieties of lettuce that I'm planting on our lettuce row:

• Red Romaine
• Black Seeded Simpson,
• Red Wing Lettuce Mix
• Oak Leaf Lettuce, and
• Rocky Top Mix

I've alternated plantings into five separate blocks, separated on the row and alternating red and green coloring of the lettuce.  It ought to be pretty once it is up and growing.  I like to plant things that not only taste good, but that look good while growing.

Five different types of Lettuce

I learned a couple things last year about lettuce that I'll put into practice again this fall/winter.  In previous years, I would pull up the lettuce by the roots, harvesting the entire plant in order to make a salad.  I realized that this was very wasteful. Rather than do that, I started just pinching off leaves I wanted to eat.  This allowed me to have a nice mix of different types of lettuce in my salad and the lettuce will continue growing and putting on more leaves that we could eat.  In short, by doing this, your lettuce will yield more per square foot.  Also, by leaving the roots in the ground at the end of the growing season, the soil is loosened and  broken up by the growing action of the roots.

Another thing I did was I covered the lettuce with a tarpaulin overnight on nights that we had freezes, weighing down the tarp with landscape timbers to keep them from blowing off of the lettuce. By doing this we were able to enjoy fresh salads even deep into the winter, without experiencing frost damage or plant death.  As the temperatures rose above freezing during the day, I would pull the tarp off the lettuce and let it continue growing in the sunshine.

Lettuce seed is very small and lightweight.  You only need to cover it with 1/8 inch soil.  I first tried the Red Romaine Lettuce variety last year, when it came as a free item with my seed order from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  This is what the Red Romaine lettuce seed looks like:

Red Romaine Lettuce seed

Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce is a variety that I've been growing for years.  It produces a nice bunch of lettuce and its bright green growth contrasts with the dark green leaves of surrounding broccoli and cauliflower.  I have better success growing lettuce in the fall and winter than I do in the spring.  It just gets hot too fast here in the south.  As a result, the lettuces bolts to seed and gets bitter-tasting very quickly. I've found that a fall planting alleviates that problem.  You can see why this lettuce is called, "Black Seeded" Simpson as you compare the picture above to the picture below.

Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce

Red Wing Lettuce Blend is a new variety I'm trying this year.  Since it is a mix, you'll note the seeds are different.

Red Wing Lettuce Mix

This is a photo of a harvested bunch of leaves from the Red Wing Lettuce mix that I found online. That will make a nice looking salad, don't you think?

Image Credit

If you look at the first photo in this blog post, you will see that the sun was higher in the sky.  As I seeded the lettuce, I became aware that the sun was dipping in the western horizon at a quick pace, and that encouraged me to hurry it up with the task at hand.  I got all the lettuce planted, covered and then lightly watered the row, simulating a rainfall.

Lettuce Row Planted

Once the lettuce is up, I'll figure out a more aesthetic way of marking the different varieties of lettuce.

Fresh Lettuce despite the freeze!

This past Fall I planted a row of lettuce in our garden.  I tried a variety this year that is the best I've ever tried.  I ordered a Salad Blend from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds called Rocky Top Lettuce Mix.  It has a great mix of "sweet red leaves, beautiful leafy greens, spicy arugula and Chervil."  It is quite something to see growing in the garden throughout the Winter contrasted against the grey skies and dull brown landscape with red leaves, green leaves and a green leaf with red freckles.

One of the reviews on Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds gave me a tip that I've used that has enabled our family to continue to enjoying lettuce all throughout the winter - freezes and all.  I can't believe I haven't thought of this before.  I've always just let my tender garden offerings die off in the freezes, but no more!  A review on the website linked above talked about covering the lettuce with plastic during freezes. Lettuce lends itself well to doing this because it is hugs the ground.

So each freeze this year, I've lugged a trusty blue tarp or two out to the garden and covered the lettuce, weighing down the edges with a few t-posts so the tarp doesn't blow off in the stiff North winds.  Sometimes I've left the tarp over the lettuce for four days and it has not harmed the lettuce one bit.  As a result, we've been able to have fresh salads with our meals with accompanying shredded fresh carrots and grated radishes.  You can't beat an instant, portable greenhouse provided by a blue tarp!

Ain't that pretty?

The above and below photos are just two of the varieties that are included in the Rocky Top Lettuce mix.  I've only really planted lettuce for a few years, so I'm still learning, but I did also learn that when you harvest, if you just pinch off the tops of the lettuce and leave the roots and very bottom leaves intact, the lettuce will grow back - giving you a 'second crop.'  You can do this until the weather warms up. When it warms up the lettuce will bolt - sending up flowers and putting the lettuce into the reproductive stage.  At this point, the leaves that were once sweet and delicious become bitter.

Nice leafy greens

In the photo below you can just see the edge of the blue tarp.  I have it positioned in place to cover the lettuce back up in preparation of the weather moving through. According to weather reports, tomorrow morning around 5am (we'll be in the barn milking around that time... BRRRR!), a front will blow through pushing temps back around the freezing mark with wind chills much colder.  I'll cover the lettuce back up so that we can continue our salad-eating without stoppage.

Red Romaine

The lettuce above is Red Romaine lettuce.  It is not part of the Rocky Top Mix, but is some free seed that Baker Creek included in my last order.  They do that from time to time and I think it is a nice gesture and enables you to try some varieties that you might not otherwise try.  This stunning red lettuce in addition to being nice to look at, is delicious to eat.

Pull the tarp up and pass the salad dressing, please.