Butter Lettuce

Recently, while dining at a fine restaurant, I noticed that one menu specialty was a salad described as featuring “the unique and elegant ‘Limestone’ lettuce.” An a la carte item, it was quite expensive. Unfortunately, there is really no such variety as ‘Limestone’ lettuce, which is called that because, in the distant past, a tender, buttery lettuce had been grown by farmers in he fertile limestone soils of the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. Also known as ‘Kentucky Bibb,’ it is one of several butterhead-lettuce varieties that are quite simple to grow in Southern California gardens.

Butterhead-lettuce varieties are soft and fragile and contain a buttery-colored heart surrounded by vivid green outer leaves. These spongy leaves have a delicate, sweet, buttery flavor. The heads of butterhead lettuce are very loosely folded.

Several varieties of butterhead lettuce are available to the home gardener. I prefer one called ‘Buttercrunch,’ which I grow most of the year. Unlike other butterheads, ‘Buttercrunch’ will tolerate heat without bolting or becoming bitter.

Other good butterhead types include ‘Kentucky Bibb,’ ‘Dark Green Boston’ and ‘White Boston.’ All are culinary delights but don’t have the warm-weather tolerance that ‘Buttercrunch’ does; in Southern California, they should be planted only between fall and early spring.

Locate your lettuce patch in a sunny portion of your garden. Cultivate the soil and enrich it with compost or other organic materials. Work in a dressing of an all-purpose vegetable fertilizer, water thoroughly and allow the soil to settle for two days before you do any planting.

Lettuce seeds are too small, so plant them shallow--about an eighth of an inch deep. As for spacing and thinning, follow the planting instructions on the seed packets.

If there is no rain, irrigate once a week--more often during hot weather. Although I grow most of my vegetables in the garden, I grow all of my lettuce in containers. I plant one container every 20 days from fall through spring, which assures a constant supply.

Growing lettuce in containers offers several advantages. Snails and slugs are not much of a problem, and weeding and cultivation chores are eliminated. And, as you use up a supply of lettuce from a particular container, you can replant easily, without elaborate soil preparation.

You’ll need to water and fertilize lettuce grown in containers more frequently than that grown in the garden.

Seeds for the butterhead-lettuce varieties mentioned here are usually available in local seed racks, or they can be ordered from Burpee Seeds, 300 Park Ave., Warminster, Pa. 18991.