Continuing our in-depth coverage of the garden draft hopefuls, we’re going to take a look at Lettuce. Our garden experts have reviewed the scant film they could find to really get underneath what makes Lettuce tick and whether that will translate to the next level.
You’re ready. We’re ready. Let’s buckle up and get going.
Check out past draft prospect coverage here: Radish
Size: How can you put a number on Lettuce’s size? No, really, how would you even measure lettuce? Height of a leaf? Weight? Volume? It’s like 112% water with a little lettuce flavor sprinkled in. So, right off the bat our experts were a little confused. But, that’s not surprising. Lettuce is a bit of a boom or bust candidate. This is really going to be driven by how much you like lettuce. On one hand, it’s delicious and refreshing. On the other, it’s Lettuce. So, we’re calling it size = regular.
Reliability/durability: High marks here for Lettuce. I know, soft leafy vegetable doesn’t really scream ‘durability,’ but Lettuce hangs tough. Consistent germination – mainly because the seeds are so small you can’t help but plant 47 of them in one place. Obviously one of those will germinate. Lots of heart to stand up to constant harvesting of their outer leaves while the inner core perseveres. Quick note – we here at Sprout and Share focus heavily on the loose leaf lettuces (letti?). I just don’t think we have the gumption to funnel all of our love, affection and effort into head lettuce that might end up with one last minute squirrel bite rendering it inedible. So, kudos are due anytime a vegetable shows more heart than the gardener.
Versatility: Nothing crazy happening here. This is Lettuce after all. Pretty buttoned-up, health-conscious entrant. You can get some interesting colors (well, mainly red or green) and some ramped up flavors (arugula, chicories, etc), but if Lettuce is going to be the star, it’s going to be salad. And Salad isn’t paying the bills. Lettuce needs to stay in their lane as a role player. As a result, Lettuce’s ceiling is a bit lower than you’d hope for a high-round pick. Garden grown Lettuce does make a great foundation to feature other veggies like beets, radishes, carrots, etc. So, good team player?
Other ilities: One of Lettuce’s biggest strengths is sustainability. Not in the “beneficial concept that helps the world way,” but in a “you can harvest it all the time” way. It just keeps churning out those leaves, and that’s what brings all the kids to the yard. And they’re like, “it’s better than store bought.” Darn right it’s better than store bought. I can teach you, but I’ll have to charge. Well, that’s not true – this blog is free to the first 100 readers – but we’ve significantly derailed from the sustainability talk, so let’s just move on.
Production: Starts the garden off with a bang in early spring when everyone is excited to see the tangible benefits of a long off-season. Not a whole lot is required from the gardener to generate consistent results – be it kids pulling leaves straight to eat, salad fodder or perhaps a nice accoutrement for those burgers coming off the grill (nothing better than garden bed-to-plate eating). Tallies a lot of marks in the ‘Pro’ column. From this assessor’s eye, the one main negative is the penchant to draw aphids from eight counties away. Lettuce seems to be some sort of aphid magnet. I’m not scientist, but I think it’s the same property that draws your child’s elbow to the full water glass on the table. Regardless, scraping aphids off individual Lettuce leaves isn’t ideal unless you’re some sort of sociopath seeking mass carnage.
Grade: B
If you truly love salad, I’d bump this a half grade. Lettuce is solid if not flashy. A good start to build on without much risk of failure. Don’t expect friends and neighbors to be fawning over your Lettuce patch, but as they say in the tech world, nobody ever got fired buying IBM. It’s a good confidence builder to add to your stable of veggies. You could do worse than a nice light garden salad with a little mustard vinagrette on a hot summer evening. Not everything you do has to be spectacular – sometimes you can just bask in the glow of slightly-above-averageness.