Art of growing lettuce, so easy to master

Ellen Ogden may be all about gardening, but she's also an artist.

So she doesn't obsess over seeds in a row. She plants lettuce in "little waves and triangles and patterns" and mesclun in arcs and circles. And she puts pale greens next to deep reds next to lime greens and red freckles.

If it looks bizarre, no sweat. In two weeks, one crop will be gone, and it will be time to plant more. This is a concept, succession planting, that many home gardeners haven't mastered yet, thinking they have to use up all the seeds in a packet at once.

But it's not hard. "Mark your calendar," Ogden says. "It's like a reminder to give the dog heartworm medicine."

She sounds so relaxed about all this. Can it really be so easy?

Absolutely.

"Lettuce is one of the very easiest things to grow, so everybody should be able to grow some," says Deb Hatton of Upper Darby, who's been working in her own and other people's gardens for many years.

For lettuce, she recommends butterhead- or bibb-type, such as the heirloom "Four Seasons," which has burgundy leaves outside and green leaves inside, or the classic buttercrunch.

There are three other main types of lettuce: looseleaf or cutting, which includes the funky royal oak leaf and black-seeded Simpson; romaine; and crisphead. The latter includes the bright-green heirloom "Reine des Glaces," which has a jazzy serrated edge, and iceberg, which you can skip.

But it's mesclun that Hatton prizes. She buys gourmet blends and green or red salad mixes, which she likes because they're "cut and come again" - they keep on growing.

Remember that many, but not all, varieties will bolt, or shoot up and go to seed, when the summer turns hot, and that lettuce has shallow roots, so the soil must be kept moist.

Once those babies are ready to pick, here's Ogden's recipe for a dressing sublime enough to serve with "the queen of the salad bowl." (That would be lettuce.)

Just before serving, rub a garlic clove in the bottom of a wooden salad bowl and add a little sea salt. Chop the garlic fine and add 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar (tarragon, sherry, balsamic), 1 teaspoon maple syrup, 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard, salt, pepper. Whisk.

Add three types of lettuce, a smattering of mesclun greens, and edible flowers, such as Johnny-jump-ups, calendula or nasturtiums.

Eat after, not before, the main course, to cleanse the palate. And serve your homegrown tomatoes, accustomed to being the star of any gardener's table, on the side.

- Virginia A. Smith