Why Grow Your Own Lettuce (cid:83) You don’t need to have a lot of space to grow vegetables above But be prepared to enjoy some fresh air (cid:84) Have you ever thought about growing your own fruit or vegetables Well why not give lettuce a try Full of Freshness Lettuce that you have grown yourself usually has a lot of flavor and you can’t beat it for freshness 6
7 Quick Growing Lettuce is a really good vegetable to grow It grows quickly and there are lots of different varieties which have different colors leaf shapes and flavors (cid:83) Attractive and tasty Parts of a Lettuce The heart or center of the lettuce the leaves are smaller and tightly packed together The outer leaves these are larger and looser The root system the roots take up water and food from the soil and feed them to the plant’s leaves through its veins to help the lettuce grow Top Tip When growing your own it is a good idea to keep a growing diary or notebook Write down everything you do from the variety of lettuce you grow to how and when you do things This will help if you decide to do it again and will be fun to look back on especially if you take pictures of your lettuce as it grows Heart Roots Outer leaves SCIENCE SPOT
What Type of Lettuce When you are planning which lettuces to grow it might be useful to think about the different types of lettuce that there are What Kind There are four types of lettuce crisphead butterhead looseleaf and romaine lettuce (cid:83) There are many varieties of lettuce Some are easier to grow than others Crisphead Lettuce Crisphead lettuce is as its name describes a crisp lettuce that forms a tight ball or head of leaves It doesn’t like hot weather and can be more difficult to grow than the other types of lettuce (cid:88) Crisphead lettuce is also called iceberg lettuce 8
Butterhead Lettuce Butterhead lettuce has a softer smaller head of looser leaves than the crisphead Some people describe it as having a light buttery flavor (cid:88) Boston and bibb lettuces are good examples of butterhead lettuce Looseleaf Lettuce Looseleaf lettuces have open leaves that do not form a head There are many varieties that can have smooth or frilly leaves in different shapes The leaves can be green red or bronze making them very attractive to grow Looseleaf lettuces tend to grow quickly and are easy to look after (cid:83) Looseleaf varieties such as lollo rossa and salad bowl can be very colorful lettuces Romaine Lettuce Romaine lettuce grows straight upright with a center of folded leaves It reached the West from Rome via France and so it has the name romaine (cid:88) Romaine lettuce forms the base of a Caesar salad 9
