VARIETIES OF SMALL LETTUCE THAT AREN’T SHORT ON TASTE
VEGETABLES: Lettuce lover will enjoy Tom Thumb, Little Gem varieties
Q I live on my own, and have just a small space for gardening. My favourite edible is lettuce, which I love to use freshly gathered. Considering my limited growing space, I am looking for lettuces that deliver the most edible leafage in the smallest space.
A: Two miniature lettuces, both remarkably fully packed with delicious leaves, come immediately to mind. One is a tiny butterhead lettuce called Tom Thumb. I’ve grown this little lettuce for many years. It has never disappointed me.
Tom Thumb is probably the oldest American lettuce variety still in cultivation — since about 1830. It’s remarkably fast growing, maturing to a tightly packed, baseball-sized head of buttery, light green and creamy yellow leaves. The plants are ideal for small garden spaces and containers.
Another very compact, spacesaving yet fully packed lettuce to consider, whether space is an issue or not, is the miniature romaine Little Gem, which grows to just about 10 cm wide and 15 cm tall. The leaves are thick and juicy, with a sweet crunch — a nice complement to Tom Thumb’s soft, smooth texture. Little Gem has long been a popular gourmet market lettuce, one you’ll have at its very best when you grow your own.
West Coast Seeds lists both of these fine, space-thrifty lettuces. Both give a remarkable amount of salad material in a tiny area. They are routinely among the first lettuces I seed every year. At each transplanting, I sow a few more seeds indoors, to maintain a steady supply of these uniquely lovely and delicious, eminently practical lettuces.
I’m very fond of oak leaf lettuces, and will be trying an heirloom variety called Baby Oakleaf from the Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.org) this year. It’s a dwarf version of regular green oakleaf lettuce. New, spacesaving lettuces are appearing every year. Catalogues from West Coast Seeds and Johnny’s Selected Seeds are particularly worth watching.