Lettuce make a salad!

There are few things in life more satisfying than growing your own food. Lettuce leaves are one of my garden staples because they only need a little bit of space and regrow when you pick them, giving you an endless supply over the Summer. They can also be grown on a windowsill indoors throughout the year. Convince me of a better crop I’ll give you a fiver (okay, that’s a fib).

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter you’ll have noticed quite a bit if lettuce talk over the last few weeks. That’s because I’ve been taking part in a great campaign called the Tiger Grow Along with 7 other green fingered bloggers. We all sowed our lettuce seeds in the same week and have been posting progress updates each week.

When my kit arrived I lined my wooden planter with black plastic, filled it with compost, sowed the lettuce seeds, watered them in and waited…

I didn’t have to wait long because a couple of days later, seedlings appeared. These are the speediest seeds I’ve ever sown! I don’t know about anyone else but no matter how many seeds I plant, I never get bored of seeing those first tiny leaves poke through the soil.

During week two the seedlings developed their first true leaves and a few purple ones appeared too.

They had a growth spurt in week three and were starting to look like proper lettuce. I managed to resist the urge to have a little taste test, but only just.

During week four the leaves didn’t grow grow a great deal taller (up to about 10cm) but became more shapely. Our planter is crammed full of lettuce now and it looks really lush and green. I think I’ll leave it a few more days before picking some to put in sandwiches. There’s probably enough in this planter for a whole salad.

As you can see, growing salad leaves yourself is very easy. They don’t take up much space and can be grown anywhere, making it a great crop if you haven’t grown any of your own food before. Give your leaves enough light and water (but don’t go too mad) and they’ll be happy. And if you’re impatient like me you’ll love how quickly they move from plot to plate 🙂 But anyway, don’t just take my word for it. See how everyone else got on too.

Did you spot the pun in the title? Let us make a salad? Not laughing? I am. Oh.

Tiger Sheds sent me a complimentary bag of compost, lettuce seeds, branded wooden planter, trowel and gardening gloves so I could take part in the #tigergrowalong campaign and share my experience. All thoughts, opinions and photography are my own.