Leaf lettuce is a common salad green. Leaf lettuce differs from head lettuce in that it produces individual leaves off a main stalk as opposed to head lettuce whose leaves form a tight head.
There are countless varieties of leaf lettuce in shades of green, red and even speckled. All these lettuces can be used interchangeably so if you have a recipe that calls for red leaf lettuce, any other leaf lettuce will do.
Lettuce is very easy to grow and it does not need a lot of space. You do need to provide good, loose, well-drained soil. Greens have a short life cycle so make sure to add some rich garden compost to your growing bed.
Here we planted our lettuce with some green bush beans. The lettuce grows quickly and will be gone by the time the beans need more space. You can grow your lettuce from seed but if you want to speed up the process, just buy little plants in 6-packs at the nursery. There are typically dozens of varieties to choose from.