Even if your gardening space is quite limited, you can grow enough salad for a family of four. To create a soil that's light and well drained, you'll probably need to amend with compost. Lettuce grows quickly, so adding nitrogen (in the form of cottonseed meal, blood meal or a commercial nitrogen fertilizer) is also recommended. Turn the soil to incorporate amendments. Seeds for many types of lettuce are available from nurseries or through mail-order catalogs. Plant several varieties for maximum flavor. To keep your rows straight, plant the seeds very close together alongside a bamboo stick (figure A). Lettuce may be harvested when it is quite young, and as you harvest young plants you'll also thin the seedlings. Rows should be planted 3" apart. Plant a different variety in each row -- romaine, arugula, cress, radicchio and red leaf -- to give the garden visual appeal.
Mark each row with a label. Pat the seed gently to settle it into the soil, and water gently. Use enough water to soak the soil but not enough to make puddles. A fan-nozzle hose-end attachment works well for watering seeds.
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