My Salad Garden

Here is my garden of lettuce. Starting from the bottom row is ButterCrunch, the second row is Red Leaf, the third row is Romain, and the top row is the Head Lettuce.

This is my first year growing lettuce. As you can tell, there are a few spots where the starters didn't survive. I decided to begin with starter pods rather than seed because we have alot of squirrels and chipmunks; they have been known to dig up the seeds.

ButterCrunch
Developed by Cornell University, this heat-tolerant, Bibb-type lettuce has quickly become a favorite since earning All America status in 1963. Its rich green leaves, sometimes tinged with red, form a beautiful rosette in the garden that holds well under stress and has good bolt resistance. A good source of vitamin A and phytonutrients. Grows best in full sun, but will tolerate partial shade and even appreciates it in spring in hot climates. For the largest-sized rosettes, space transplants 18 inches apart.

Red Leaf
Good-quality red leaf lettuce will have fairly large, loose heads and thick, "crumpled" leaves. The leaves will be medium to dark-red in color at the ends. The rest of the leafs will be medium to dark-green blending to nearly white ribs or veins. Scratch the stalk and smell. A sweet or bitter smell means sweet or bitter flavor.
Romain
Romaine or cos lettuce is a variety of Greek Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. longifolia) which grows in a tall head of sturdy leaves with a firm rib down the center. Unlike most lettuces, it is tolerant of heat.As with other dark leafy greens, the antioxidants contained within romaine lettuce are believed to help prevent cancer. According to the 2011 edition of the Old Farmer's Almanac, the chlorophyll pigment in dark leafy greens, such as Romaine lettuce, may reduce levels of colon and liver cancer carcinogens.

Head
This is a half-hardy vegetable that you can keep growing all season long by planting one small crop at a time. Days to maturity tend to be short. Garden lettuce is far superior, in both taste and vitamin A content, to supermarket brands.Lettuce is a cool-season crop. While you should avoid planting in the middle of summer, you can get multiple crops in spring and late summer. Take extra care if planting crisphead varieties; they will not survive a hot spell.

Helpful Hints From TLC Home
One thing I recommend to anyone who asks me about what they should grow in their first vegetable garden is that they first think about what it is that they like to eat. And people tell me, almost 100% of the time, that they really want to grow their own lettuce for fresh, healthful salads. I don't blame them. There is so much to lettuce besides iceberg and Romaine. What about sweet, tender 'Buttercrunch' or beautiful 'Lollo Rossa'? "Deer Tongue,' 'Sanguine Ameliore,' 'Mascara,' and 'Oak Leaf' -- how could you not fall in love with lettuce, when it offers so much variety and beauty, not to mention flavor? There are actually 5 main types of lettuce: crisphead, cos (Romaine), butterhead, Batavian, and looseleaf. The first four are essentially "head lettuces," forming a central rosette of leaves that grows in on itself. You harvest head lettuces by either cutting off the entire head, or by taking the outer leaves as you need them. The last type, looseleaf, also known as "cut-and-come-again" lettuce, is the one I most often recommend.

I am excited about my lettuce garden as we eat salads almost every night. I will be nice to just go outside in my backyard and cut from fresh. During the season, we will see the growth and progress of my salad garden.

(Definitions, terms, and growing information provided by Wikipedia, Burpee, and TLC Home)