Lettuce are the mainstay of summer salads and they are easy to grow. As a child the only way I could eat lettuce was if I sprinkled the leaves with vinegar and sugar and for too many years they reminded me of the ‘treat’ at nan’s house on a Sunday night when we would have salad with tinned salmon. I hated tinned salmon for years after (I am still not keen on it) and it almost put me off salad for life. The cause was largely the flabby ‘butterhead’ lettuce which was almost the only type you could get. You know the sort, with soft thin leaves that stick to your teeth and the roof of your mouth. We would fight for the heart, the only bit with a hint of texture! No wonder everyone gasped a sigh of relief when ‘Iceberg’ lettuce became widely available. But there were other lettuce around even as far back in time as my childhood. Tasty, crisp ‘Webb’s Wonderful’ was being grown by home gardeners and there were crisp Cos lettuce (now often called romaine) too. But I am sure shops only sold the flabby butterheads.

How times have changed. Although most supermarkets still sell the appetite-suppressing butterheads they also sell crunchy ‘Little Gems’ (even though they are probably a more modern variant and not the old original) as well as Cos plus the rows of bags with salad leaves that can contain everything from lamb’s lettuce to beetroot leaves.

Lettuce can be sown direct in the garden, where it is to grow, but I tend to grow most of mine in seed trays and then transplant the seedlings into cell trays. The seeds are not tiny and I often sow two seeds per cell and then remove one seedling if two germinate. This way I can space the plants out where I want them and not waste so much seed. If you do sow them in a row in the garden you don’t need to waste any ‘thinnings’ because they are edible at every stage. Lettuce seeds will not germinate if the soil is hot and dry so keep them well watered. By sowing in trays I can place them somewhere cool and shady even in summer so avoid germination problems.

By growing a range of varieties you can stagger the harvest time but it is also good to sow them at least once a month through spring and summer. My first lettuce were sown in March (and these are the photos below) but I have sown more in April and May and sowed the next batch last week.

I won’t go into the various types here but I hope the photos will show just how attractive lettuce can be. The ‘looseleaf’ types that can be picked by taking a few leaves off the plant at each harvest are bred so they are slow to ‘bolt’ (flower) and so can look pretty for months, making them ideal for ‘edible landscaping’ (a ridiculous but trendy name).

Anyway, the first sowings were of six varieties, some of which are now being picked, pulled, cut and munched.

‘Sweetheart’. This is listed as a Cos lettuce but it is small and like a ‘Little Gem’. It has been the first to mature although I have been pulling off a few outer leaves for several weeks. It is dense, crunchy and really delicious. I am often sceptical about claims for the taste of lettuce but I can eat this one without smothering it in Caesar dressing.

It goes without saying that eating lettuce is a good thing, especially because we usually eat them raw. They are packed with good things such as vitamin C and A, lutein and fibre. But if we eat red lettuce we get other antioxidants too so I am growing some of these for this reason and not just because they look pretty.

‘Mottistone’. I have a nasty feeling this might look better than it tastes and the outer leaves are a bit tough. But they are young still so time will tell. In the meantime their speckled leaves look beautiful.

‘Mascara’. This is apparently an old variety but I have not grown it before. The deeply cut leaves have been beautiful from their tiniest stage and they are maturing into beautiful plants. They look almost like seaweed and a few of these brighten up a salad. Not my favourite to eat but I had a salad of these and felt very virtuous.

‘Lollo Rosso’. Another beauty but this time with frilly leaves. The great advantage of growing your own is that you know your salad won’t have the horribly brown cut ends that seem obligatory in restaurants, showing that the leaves were picked and packed at least a week ago. This one stands well in the garden and is enchanting when it finally does send up a flower stem

‘Red Iceberg’. I am expecting great things of this though I suspect the crisp hearts will be white and just tinged with red. Still it looks great in the bed.

‘Webb’s Wonderful’. This lettuce is as old as the hills and long ago replaced by commercial growers but is one of my favourites to grow and to eat. The large crisp hearts are really delicious and it is a big plant with lots of outer leaves that protect the heart. Last year everyone that visited the garden went away with a huge lettuce and a big smile.