Benefits To Growing Lettuce
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Taste and space are the keywords when selecting lettuce varieties for growing in a raised bed / container. You want the maximum crop with good taste (and sometimes colour) in the smallest amount of space.
The seed catalogues list a huge variety of lettuce seeds and the choice can be almost overwhelming. Which variety of lettuce you grow in your raised bed or container is a matter of personal choice but we strongly suggest that you grow a compact small variety.
Start to harvest lettuce in raised beds or containers from late of March onwards, early April in cooler areas. Don't make the mistake of sowing all your lettuce seed in one go, you will end up with a bumper crop, too much eat over a ten day period and then nothing. Instead, sow a few seeds each week so that they don't all mature at the same time. You can continue to sow lettuce up until mid August but see our advice in the next section.
As you harvest your lettuce, firm down soil they were in and sow a few more lettuce seeds in their place. Doing this you can get two or three crops of lettuce from the same area within a season. A very economical use of valuable space.