How to Grow Cool Weather Lettuce

Many varieties of lettuce will provide your family with a bountiful harvest during the cooler months. If you live in a temperate climate zone where frost is rare, planting lettuce from seed or bedding plants in late fall will keep you in salads until the weather warms up in mid spring. Whether you prefer Romaine, Red leaf, Oakleaf, Butterhead or the very cold resistant Deer Tongue, all will perform well from fall through spring. If you live in a region with cool summers, lettuce will serve you well during the warmer months.

Compost
Shovel
Fertilizer

Instructions

- 1
  Prepare a planting area in partial shade to full sun. Spread a 2-inch layer of organic compost on the soil surface and then turn it under with your shovel to a depth of about 8 inches.
- 2
  Broadcast lettuce seeds evenly over the soil surface and then barely cover them with soil. If you can space your seeds to about 10 per foot of garden, this is a good distance.
- 3
  Water the area after planting. Run a sprinkler for about 10 minutes. Keep the area moist but not soggy at all times.
- 4
  Thin lettuce plants to stand 4 to 6 inches apart when they are 3 to 4 inches tall. Add thinned plants to salads.
- 5
  Fertilize your lettuce with a balanced plant food, such as one with an N-P-K ratio of 10-10-10, about one month after planting seeds. Repeat this application once each month throughout the plants’ lives, following product instructions.
- 6
  Harvest leaf lettuces. Simply snip off the larger outer leaves when you want to make a salad.

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