GROW GREAT LETTUCE in Winter

When I moved to central Virginia 25 years ago, my gardening neighbors believed that lettuce couldn’t be grown in winter. I set out to prove that we could indeed produce a continuous supply of salad greens year-round. I garden at Twin Oaks Community, where we plant 120 lettuces each week — enough to feed 100 people. By late September, we’ve made our 46th sowing of the year. Although we cultivate much more than you’ll likely need to grow yourself, you can still apply our planting strategy to enjoy fresh, homegrown lettuce throughout winter on a smaller scale.

A simple way to extend your harvest is to sow several different lettuce cultivars on the same day, each day you plant. You should plant cultivars with various numbers of days to maturity, including at least one fast one and one slowcause you can harvest individual leaves while you’re waiting for the heads to reach full size.