If you want fresh, organic lettuce on demand, your own garden is the best source. No more foraging in the supermarket produce department for old, wilted leaf lettuce, or dashing to the farmer’s market across town only to find their greens sold out half an hour ago.

All you have to do is set up your growing bed, plant your seeds, water them for 3 to 4 weeks, and step out of your kitchen with your scissors and a salad bowl. You can be assured that they’re clean, organic, and free of pesticide residues and other nastiness. You don’t need to worry about those contaminated lettuce recalls you hear about on the news, because you know where your salad came from – right from your home.


Choose the right varieties
For a small garden, plant baby leaf lettuce, baby spinach, or micro-greens. Sure, you can grow head lettuce or romaine if you have a large garden space and the time to wait for it to mature, but you can’t beat the baby leaf greens for ease of growing and quick turnaround to harvest. You can even grow several batches during the season and start your next batch before the previous harvest winds down.

Online seed catalogs have the best selection. If this is your first try at growing salad greens, choose a “leaf lettuce mix,” also called “mesclun” or “spring mix.” These are colorful blends of 4 to 6 varieties that are meant to be harvested while small. The “All Star Mix” from Johnny’s Seeds is a good example – or choose “Encore” if you prefer to use organic seed.

“Microgreens” are another great seed choice. These are blends of vegetable varieties with edible leaves that are normally grown to maturity but can be harvested when they’re young and tender. They include kale, beet, kohlrabi, arugula, mustard, cilantro, and cabbage. Buy a pre-mixed blend, or create your own.

Setting up your salad garden
Baby salad greens have shallow roots, so they don’t need a lot of dirt. A container garden in shallow trays is less effort and expense than deep raised beds or planting directly in the ground.

• Lightweight: easy to set up and move around as you start each new crop
• Height: can be placed at a comfortable position for filling, planting, watering, and harvesting
• Inexpensive: trays are cheap and don’t require much soil, so getting started won’t cost you a fortune
• Clean: soil is kept contained as you grow and harvest, so your growing area stays tidy

Trays should be square, not round, to maximize your growing area. Choose sturdy plastic trays that can be washed out and used over again. Plastic thickness of 1.5 millimeter or thicker will support the weight of your potting soil if you need to move the tray to a different location, while the cheap 0.7 millimeter trays can only be moved when empty.

A standard size is about 10 x 20 inches – the pro gardeners call these “1020s.” If you buy smaller trays, you’ll need to buy more of them. Make sure they’re at least 2-1/2 inches deep so there’s room for soil. The product description should say “BPA free” – you don’t want to grow your greens in toxic plastic. If you want to be really green, you can even re-use food grade plastic trays from the deli or ready-to-eat meals after you wash them.

Do you need a container with drain holes to grow salad greens? No! Choose growing trays with no drain holes. Remember, these are small plants with shallow roots and you’ll be harvesting them early. Watering will consist of keeping soil wet but not waterlogged. Soaking the soil and letting the water drain away just wastes time, effort, and nutrients.

How about those plastic covers or domes sold in garden supply shops? Again, no. You might save a few minutes of watering time in the first few days, but as soon as the plants emerge, they will need air circulation to thrive. If you cover your trays, green mold will form on your soil even before your lettuce seeds germinate.

The right soil mix for container growing
Buy a good quality seed starting mix or soil specially made for indoor house plants. Garden soil and “potting mix” are coarser soils that will be hard to work with. Soil comes in plastic bags that can be messy to pour. A 5 gallon plastic bucket or tub makes the process clean and easy. Simply empty as much soil as you think you’ll need into the container.

Set up your trays on a table at waist height and use a plastic food container to scoop your soil into your trays. Level it out, then press some of the air out with the palms of your hands or a trowel. The result should be halfway between “light and fluffy” and “hard as concrete.” You should end up with about 2 inches of soil in the tray and no less than 1/2 inch of space to the lip of the tray.

Finally, use a spray bottle on mist setting to wet down the soil until it’s damp but not soaked. This primes it to absorb water after planting. To give your seedlings an extra boost, add a dash of liquid seaweed extract to your spray bottle when you prime the soil. This is a natural organic fertilizer found in most garden stores and online. Don’t use it after the seedlings sprout – you don’t want to give your lettuce any off flavors.

You’ll quickly get tired of using a trigger spray bottle for watering, so invest in a pump-style sprayer bottle or tank and keep it next to your growing area.

Best locations for growing lettuce – outdoors or indoors?
Baby leaf lettuce needs precise control of three conditions to thrive. Like Goldilocks, it wants neither too little nor too much.

• Light: Too little light will produce spindly plants that fall over and wilt. Too much light will make your lettuce quickly go to seed, or “bolt.”
• Warmth: Lettuce likes cool but not cold conditions. Plants germinate and grow best at room temperature. Hot conditions during growth produce bitter leaves.
• Water: never let your trays dry out, but don’t drown them either.

Locating your lettuce bed indoors gives you the best control over these three factors. Room temperature is perfect for germination and growth, and a sunny window with southern exposure provides the right amount of light. You’re never far away from your green garden, so you can keep an eye on the soil moisture, plus there’s the pleasure of watching it grow.

Plants will tend to grow toward the light, but it’s easy to rotate your trays to keep this from getting out of hand. Horticulatural lighting is also an option, if you have the space and want to spend the money.

If you don’t have enough space indoors, you can grow your lettuce greens outdoors. Choose a spot that gets at least some sun. During the warmest months, you’ll need to use shade cloth or position your trays behind a deck railing so the sun isn’t beating down on your greens all day. Locate your trays away from walls that will reflect intense heat and cook your plants. In cooler months the sun is your friend, and you’ll want to maximize daytime exposure to keep your soil warm and encourage growth. A table at waist height will make watering and harvesting your salad greens easier on your back.

Planting, growing and harvesting
Scatter your seeds thinly in your growing tray. Seeding densely and thinning them afterward is more work, so try to avoid it. Pro tip: mix the seeds with a bit of fine sand in a salt shaker and sprinkle the mix on the surface of the soil to disperse the seeds. Then shake a thin layer of your soil mix over the seeds to cover and press gently.

Seeds should germinate in 3 to 6 days. The only real work of growing lettuce is to keep the soil moist without overwatering. Using the mist setting on your pump sprayer and do two sweeps back and forth. Wait a moment for the water to soak into the soil and check it by poking a finger clear through to the bottom of the tray. If your finger comes up damp but not muddy, you’ve done it right. You’ll soon learn how many sweeps you need to do with your sprayer and will be able to quickly move on after watering is done.

In 3 to 4 weeks your greens will have healthy size leaves, about 1 inch in diameter, and you’re ready to harvest! Use the “haircut” method – snip off the leaves with a pair of sharp kitchen shears into a bowl. By leaving 1 inch or more of stem, you’ll find many of the plants will put out new leaves within a week or two and you can harvest again from the same plants.

These baby greens taste best with a light salad dressing – a squirt of olive oil and a spritz of balsamic vinegar or lemon juice will bring out their delicate flavor. You’ll want to save creamy ranch and other heavy dressings for romaine or bibb lettuce grown in deep beds. But for very little work and a quick payoff, baby salad grees can’t be beat.

Harvest time is your cue to start a couple more trays of greens to get a head start on the next batch. Use this opportunity to try out different varieties. Tell your friends about the results!

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