Growing Lettuce in Pots

I will be the first to admit I'm actually not thrilled about growing edibles in containers. Or really anything in containers! I much prefer to till fields (no matter how small and unfield-sy they can be) and work to create healthy soil over the long term. But I live in a small apartment and I have only my deck. My east-facing deck, I might add, where sun ducks behind the building by noon at the latest. That said, I can't not try (I mean, it's my job to grow food) and over the years, I have learned to adapt. Now, my deck is cluttered with pots and containers full of great-to-grow edibles that supply my kitchen and my pantry with produce for my meals. Lettuces, are one of the easiest most rewarding of plants to grow and I grow as many as I can in abundance. Here are some pics from a spring sowing that I am now offiicially harvesting the last of - sow'd from seed in early April and it's now end of June. From seed to harvest was just about six weeks. From there, I cut from each plant for the better part of a month. They are only now just beginning to falter and turn bitter in the heat.

If you sow lettuces this month, be sure to choose varieities that won't bolt in the summer heat. I like the heirloom Deer Tongue, Little Gem (a small-headed romaine) and Rogue d'Hiver - a red-tipped leaf that has a nice crisp leaf and rib, but also has tender leaves. Perfect.