By Wendy Ulrich

Lab Technician, C. Beaty Hannah Horticulture & Environmental Center

Question: I love salads! They are such a versatile food and so good for you.      My problem is I live in a very wet area and can’t get in to work my garden in time to get the lettuce seed planted to enjoy before the weather warms up too much. I don’t want to go to the trouble of building raised beds or change my other gardens for such a small crop. Any suggestions?

Answer: I also love salad! You can add so many wonderful things to make it a satisfying meal and growing your own lettuce is a great beginning. Maybe I have an answer to your prayers. It’s called a container garden. Lettuce, other salad type greens, herbs and some vegetables make ideal container plants.  

So let’s get you started… The container can be as creative as you want as long as it has good drainage and is the correct size to contain the amount of soil needed for the plants you select.  Another good tip for container gardening is to place the container on some type of pot feet so it will not become clogged on the bottom, preventing correct drainage. Other things to think about are: will the container need to be mobile, is it porous (to wick water away from the soil and plant roots), will it be highly visible (attractive) and size (will it fit in the location)?  

Lettuce and other salad greens require one to three gallons of a growing medium. The soilless mixes made especially for containers will work best; they are free of disease, insects, and weed seed. There are all types of container mixes, some with such additives as slow release fertilizer and/or moisture control polymers. So you’ll have plenty of choices. Now you should probably have some idea of how much lettuce you would like to grow; that will help determine the size of the container/containers and the amount of soil needed.  

The next decision is: do you want to start with plants or seeds? If you are starting late, plants may be the way to go, but if you are early enough to start with seed, the choices of flavors, colors, and textures are amazing! Just flip through a seed catalog and see all the different colored varieties and types of lettuce and salad greens available today. You might also want to consider sowing some seeds at different intervals in different containers to have a continuous supply or grow cut-and-come-again varieties. You could even add some radish seeds or onions sets to go in your salad at harvest time. Add a container of herbs to your deck or doorstep and you’re in business.  

The most time consuming commitment to container gardening will be dealing with the water needs of the plants. This will depend on the type of soil you use and the weather conditions.  Another important factor will be the location of the container; will it need to be moved in the event of a late freeze, cold wind or other extreme conditions which may occur during early spring? One year I used an old wheelbarrow that had rust holes in the bottom (recycling), which worked well for drainage, and it was easy to move to a protective area in extreme weather and then back again.  

These are just a few of the things to think about. If you decide this is the route you would like to take, we have a wonderful in-depth, full color publication, “Container Gardening (ANR 1139),” that you should read along with our “Alabama Gardener’s Calendar” publication (ANR 479) which will help with sowing dates. Both of these publications are available at our office free of charge, or you may go online to our website www.aces.edu/StClair and search our publications link by the publication number or name to download the information.  

For more about this topic please contact Wendy Ulrich, Lab Technician, at the St. Clair County Extension office at (205) 338-9416 or email ulricwg@aces.edu.