Kitchen Garden Forum

There is a very pretty lettuce called Freckles and it has a good flavour too.
Sarah Raven among others sell these seeds. It is a Romaine variety with crispy leaves.

alan refail wrote:

IMG_1335 (640x480).jpg

OK, I know, yet another picture of lettuce, but I do think they're rather attractive.

Lol, that looks a lot like my greenhouse I'm very pleased with the way the Moretons Secret Mix has turned out. Visually beautiful, as you so rightly pointed out - can't wait to taste them now.

VPM
x

VPM - I cut the first one yesterday just after taking the picture - the deep red one front left. It was delicious mixed with one of the over-wintered Winter density. We had it in Jamie Oliver's Epic Egg Salad - do try it. http://www.jamieoliver.com/magazine/rec ... -egg-salad

Little gem with out a doubt is the finest tasting lettuce, sown inn succession it is ready to eat in 2/3 weeks

I haven't had much joy with mixes, I found they were always dominated by one or another type. This last sowing should have been labelled, 'Mizuna' salad. Mizuna is good but like anything you can have enough. Right now my Mizuna salad is so prolific i'm knocking on doors trying to get rid of it.

Whoooo-eeee.

I'm a great lover of Little Gem though i've been scared-off from growing lettuce because I may not have the right conditions.

Alans mix of lettuce looks very nice.

It is, Richard, and I'm just now planting out a second sowing. It's a joy to get just the sort of lettuce you want for a salad, sometimes green, sometimes red or speckled, sometimes soft-leaved, sometimes crisp and cos-like.

Another excellent variety that I have grown in the past was 'Counter' which has been bred from 'Little Gem'.
Can't get hold of it at the moment. It as very crispy and more like a small cos lettuce - kept well.

John

I think the old" Webbs Wonderful " is worth growing.

I'm now committed to growing salad year-round and even though my cold frame isn't a perfect solution it did produce a mixed leaves winter variety together with spring onions that are still growing right now after being transplanted to open-beds.

Does the packaging of winter varieties mean most lettuces will not survive in an unheated green house or cold frame ?

It's so much better picking what you want and when you want rather than having a regular supply of slimy bags in the fridge because you didn't eat fast enough. My lovely won't eat salad so i'm yet again a bachelor and even though i'm giving most of my salad produce to neighbours a £2 packet of seed produces a lot of leaves and happy neighbours.

As I write this and consider winter i'm wondering if cloches might be better than my cold frame which encourages spindly growth and the results banging their heads on the twin-wall polycarbonate.

After bitching about my current salad mix with it's invasive amount of mizuna I have culled the mizuna to allow some others space. Lovely, red beet leaves, a few different soft-leaves and a few herbs.

Penny gave me some lettuce plants that did look unhappy and might be Little Gem. They look a lot happier now but still look like floppy lettuce, when does Little Gem start to look like the small robust crispy lettuce ?

Richard -
Neighbour who gave me the seed (and said it was Little Gem) has shown me her lettuces in the greenhouse - she says they are Little Gem, but are not hearting up, so perhaps the weather this year has something to do with it.

Lettuce seedlings do tend to go very floppy when dug up, I try not to do it on a warm day, or do it early morning or late evening. They soon perk up if given a water and put somewhere cool.

I know it works out more costly, but I sometimes resort to buying a tray of living leaves and plant them out - usually get 12 -15 good sized plants to go out as soon as the conditions permit, and year before last, I was cutting- and-coming from them all summer. Last year was such a wash out I did not bother. Sometimes you can get a tray that has gone over reduced, so worth getting them to shove in any gaps.

Thanks Penny.

I did sow a five foot row of those Marshalls mixed salad leaves that I showed you. They have sprouted so if everything survives i'll be up to my ears in salad leaves.

Yesterday I spent six hours on the roof of the van, the algae, bird-droppings and muck was so thick I could have grown geraniums up there.

If i'm heading in your direction i'll bring the weed-hook, otherwise you're welcome if you want to pick up.

Will we see you Saturday? If not, I would like to take up your kind offer of some of your cow-poo mountain, so maybe I could come up next week some time with some bags...

You need a herd of bunnies to help you with all the lettuce you will have!