Growing Lettuce: A Complete Profile

By Growing Home Greens Team · July 17, 2026

If you want a first-garden success story in under six weeks, lettuce is it. It germinates reliably, tolerates a light frost, and — unlike a lot of vegetables — you can harvest outer leaves gradually instead of waiting for one big harvest day.

What to expect

Lettuce is a cool-season crop through and through. It grows best in the mild weeks of spring and fall, and it bolts (sends up a bitter flower stalk) once daytime temperatures push into the 80s. Succession planting — sowing a new small batch every couple weeks — keeps a steady supply going instead of one big flush that bolts all at once.

Common problems

Bitterness almost always means the plant bolted from heat stress, not a soil problem. If your season’s warming up fast, plant in a spot that gets afternoon shade to buy a few extra weeks.

Where this fits in your garden

Lettuce is a great “filler” crop — its shallow roots don’t compete with deeper-rooted neighbors like carrots or tomatoes, which is why it shows up so often as a companion. See the full companion guide for lettuce, and note it’s one of the highest-density plants in the Garden Designer’s square-foot grid — four plants per square foot.

Companion planting guide for Lettuce · Find your planting dates

Typically viable in USDA zones 2-10. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.

Spacing: 4 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing).

Varieties worth considering

• Slobolt — Seed Savers Exchange describes it as very slow to bolt, producing leaves all summer long — a good pick for hot climates or late-spring plantings. (source)
• Summertime (crisphead) — Seed Savers Exchange notes it tolerates heat and resists bolting — another hot-climate option. (source)

Cited from the source shown next to each variety — we haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement.

Where to buy lettuce seeds

• Botanical Interests
• True Leaf Market
• Burpee
• High Mowing Organic Seeds

Some links on this page go to retailers we may eventually earn a commission from as an affiliate, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products with a genuine consensus of positive, independent reviews — see the sources cited on each item.

See it growing

Search YouTube for "growing lettuce" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video — results vary and aren't vetted by us)