Lettuce spacing

How close can you plant lettuce in a raised bed?

Leaf lettuce can grow close together in raised beds, making it one of the easiest crops for quick harvests and repeat sowing.

Plant for how you harvest

For baby greens, lettuce can be sown densely and cut young. For larger heads or repeated leaf harvests, give plants more room so they keep producing.

Instead of planting the whole bed at once, sow a short row or small block every week or two. That creates steadier harvests and fewer bolting plants.

Lettuce works well before tomatoes size up, after spring crops finish, or anywhere a bed has short-term open space.

A practical starting point for leaf lettuce when you want full plants and easy picking.

Lettuce performs best in cooler weather and may need shade or replacement crops during heat.

Small repeated sowings are usually more useful than one large planting.

Use the lettuce calculator to estimate a block size, then plant only what you can harvest fresh. Open the calculator with these defaults, or check the monthly sowing calendar before you plant.