Tired of having to buy your salad greens every week. Ready to try salad gardening. Maybe you don’t have a lot of space outside for a garden, or you live in a tiny urban space. The good news is you don’t have to grow outside. It doesn’t take a lot of space or soil to grow your own lettuce and you can do it inside, on your kitchen counter or in a sunny window.
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The wonderful thing about lettuce is that most variations don’t need a lot of space or soil to grow, and they grow relatively fast. Also, lettuce can grow well in temperatures that we find comfortable at in the house. If you find a nice sunny spot for your lettuce it will do well. A south facing window is a great option.
Easy Salad Growing Test
One of the simplest ways to try this out is to cut of the ends of your store-bought romaine lettuce and sit them in a cup or container with a little water. Allow it to sit for about a week or until you start to see new green growth coming from the cut end, and roots forming at the bottom. Once the roots are about an inch or two long, plant your new lettuce plant into a bowl or small pot filled with potting soil.
Keep the soil damp, but not over watered and in a sunny window and watch your lettuce grow. Once your lettuce is growing you can harvest the outer leaves each day. You can also cut and regrow more lettuce repeatedly.
Start with Plants
If you are a visual person a fun choice is to get lettuce seedlings at your local home and garden center. Usually, they are stocked in the spring and depending on your local growing season again in late summer or early fall. Buying seedlings lets you check out all the fun leaf colors and shapes before you buy.
Again, once you get your plants just grab a pot or an old bowl, fill it with good potting soil and plant your lettuce. It won’t take long before it grows enough that you can start to harvest.
Dive All In
Now that you have gotten a sense of how easy it is are you ready to try new varieties. This way is the most fun. You can grow any lettuce variety from seed.
Visit the seed aisle in your local garden center they should have some available year round or order them online. Ordering from an online shop may open you up to more options. Stores tend to carry the more common varieties. Make sure you pay attention to germination time (and temperature), and how long it will take your lettuce to grow to maturity.
It is also helpful to know if you can continually harvest your lettuce varieties or if you should let it grow to maturity, harvest, and then replant. To ensure your success start with something that’s easy to grow and take care of, then branch out from there.
Once you see and taste those first few harvests, you’ll be ready to expand your lettuce bowl collection.
