The Daily Gardener Journal

I like a lot of variety of greens in my salads.  How about you?  Do you have one favorite or do you plant a lot of different types of greens?  Tell me which ones you like best.

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I like bibb lettuce the best.  Hands down it has been the most reliable lettuce, year after year.  I get a nice head of lettuce with big fat juicy leaves and no bitterness at all.  Although Mel Bartholomew in the Square Foot Gardening recommends planting lettuce 4 per square, with bibb lettuce I plant one per square foot and let it spread out.  When this lettuce first starts to leaf out I harvest leaves from the outside by gently tearing off each leaf with a sideways pull.  As the weeks go on, I cut the whole head before it starts to bolt, but more importantly before the leaves get a bitter flavor.  The leaves get bitter before you see the center start to push up, the first indication the head is bolting.

Here in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Vermont, Bibb lettuce can be grown all summer even when it gets hot in July and August.  I will start another batch of sets in the next couple of weeks.  For my family of four, sometimes five people I like to have 12 head to pick from either cut a head or harvest the leaves.  So start a few lettuce sets today.  Oh by the way, remember to let me know what lettuce is your favorite

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