Luscious lettuce

Season

Summer

Name

Lettuce

Common Name

Lettuce

Description

Lettuce is one of the best vegetables to grow in September because it thrives in cooler temperatures. Lettuce planted in September is ready for harvest in 45 to 50 days so good for autumn harvest.

Planting lettuce seeds a few weeks apart helps to ensure harvests continue until the cold sets in. Lettuce is a fast-growing crop and needs to be thinned to prevent plants from overcrowding.

Growing Tips

Sow in a sunny place in well-drained soil.

When to grow:

Sow seeds outside this month throughout September (check the seed packet for details.)

You will need:

• Gardening gloves
• Packet of lettuce seeds
• Label and pencil
• Hand trowel
• Rake
• Watering can

What you do:

1. Make sure that you weed the space where you are going to sow your seeds using a hand trowel. Rake the soil to a fine tilth, this is when the soil looks crumbly and rake the soil so that it is level. Decide where your row or rows of seeds will be planted.
2. Using a hand trowel make a shallow line about as deep as a child’s thumb, in the soil (planting drill), water the drill and leave the soil to drain. Carefully sow your seeds in the row, in an even way, leaving a finger space between the seeds. Gently cover the seeds up.
3. Watch as your seeds grow into plants, keep them watered if the weather is dry and weed around them so that they can grow big and strong. You may need to thin out the plants as they begin to grow and watch out for slugs.