Mid-May in the northeastern United States: A Primula veris; B Brunnera macrophylla ‘Hadspen Cream’; C Tiarella cordifolia; D Antennaria neglecta; E Houstonia caerulea; F Brunnera macrophylla ‘Hadspen Cream’ (leaves); G Viola sororia.

 

Many of the “vegetables” we grow in our gardens are actually fruits—parts of plants containing seeds like tomatoes, squash, corn, beans, and peas. Then there are the true vegetables, of course, that offer edible roots, tubers, stems, and leaves. Some vegetable plants are perennials that will be in the garden for decades. Fiddlehead ferns, asparagus, and rhubarb have to be harvested early in spring either before the fern crosiers develop, their shoots reach ten inches, or the rhubarb bolts—sending up its flower spike. There are also annual vegetables to sow and harvest in spring.

Leaf lettuces do not travel well, and although greens are available at most supermarkets, homegrown is a treat— from garden to table in minutes. It is also quite inexpensive to grow your own leaf lettuce, and unlike the head-forming kinds (cos or romaine, butterhead and crisphead, or iceberg types), you pick leaves without harvesting the entire plant.

Lettuce is a cool-season crop to grow outdoors, but the seeds germinate best at 70 degrees F indoors in flats with individual cells filled with sowing-medium (plugs) so they can be removed with minimal root disturbance. The seeds need light to germinate and should be sown on the surface and just barely pressed into the medium or sprinkled atop a thin layer of fine grit or coarse sand. Successive crops should be sown every seven days (indoors until the weather warms a bit, and then directly outdoors for a few more weeks) to provide a few months of harvestable leaves.

The seedlings appear quickly, and when roots show at the outer edge of a soil plug, they are ready to transplant to the garden rows. If your soil is good—enriched with compost or well-rotted and composted manure, the lettuce will not need fertilizing.

Be sure the plants get enough water. Their roots are shallow: Too much sunlight or heat will toast the leaves. On the other hand, if the soil surface stays too wet, or if too thickly mulched, slugs may attack.

Leaf lettuce comes in several colors and many shapes. These plants may be used to decorate spring containers outdoors. You can also make a leaf lettuce border for a formal spring planting of tulips and violas, for example. Some popular varieties of leaf lettuce include ‘Oakleaf’ (shade-tolerant), ‘Green Ice’, ‘Red Sails’ (ruffled red), ‘Salad Bowl’ (lime green), ‘Red Fire’, ‘Grand Rapids’ (curled leaves), ‘Black Seeded Simpson’ (frilly, juicy, quick), ‘Slobolt’, ‘Lollo Rosso’ (pink-bronze edges), ‘Ruby’, and ‘Rossimo’ (fringed, bright red, puckered).

Cool spring leaf lettuces come in many colors. Leaves may be harvested until hot weather ends their season. Seeds can be sown in late summer for an autumn crop.