Monty Don Teaches You About Planting Lettuce | Gardeners' World

The vegetable garden has had a good year so far. I've got some lettuce here which will be ready for harvesting really in late summer, early autumn. And the idea of lettuce is just to keep succession growing. But that does mean good timing and good choice of varieties. This one here, which is a Lovejoy's Coz, prefers warmer summer weather. And this is a cut and come again variety. This is a red oak leaf and I'll get at least two cuttings of that before the end of the year. It's always tempting to grow too much of one variety of lettuce. Far better to have small amounts of different varieties which are enough but not too much. Now a Coz lettuce has got that lovely crisp heart but it grows tall and is really I suppose my favorite. And the two best summer Coz's are this which is Lovejoy's and there's Paris Island is another really good variety. But whatever variety I always grow them the same way nowadays which is to sow them in a seed tray and then prick them out into plugs, grow them on and then plant them out when they're this size. And this all started because I found when I direct sowed the slugs and the snails could devastate them just as they appeared above the ground. Whereas if I grow these on in the protection of a greenhouse and cold frames and I really watch out for slugs in particular here, then they get nice and strong and young and healthy and if I plant them out at this size they can withstand slug attack. Of course the Lovejoy you cut and that's it, you've made your harvest. It will grow back but it will never form a heart again. Whereas an oak leaf is loose, it has no heart and if you keep cutting it, it'll keep regrowing. And as long as I protect it from the worst of the cold, this will go on giving a harvest certainly into Christmas time and they will grow happily in an unheated greenhouse right through the winter. And a raised bed like this is perfect because it's so easy to plant. Using my fingers the soil is nice and moist, it's warm. These will grow fast. The other thing to bear in mind is that the rate of growth now gets slower and slower as we move through summer into autumn because the light levels are falling. So allow a little bit more time. I've been growing vegetables all my life and do so in a very conventional fashion I suppose. But there's a new generation of gardeners who are coming to the fore who are challenging received ideas and long may they do so.