Carol Klein shares ‘really good idea’ to ensure ‘lots of fresh’ lettuce leaves – grow now

Carol Klein shares tips for pricking out lettuce seedlings

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Carol Klein is an English gardening expert who also works as a TV presenter and newspaper columnist. In tonight’s episode of Spring Gardening with Carol Klein, the gardener demonstrated which seeds to be planting now to be able to eat the end product in only a few weeks.

Lettuce, tomatoes, and beans are all seeds that can be planted now, according to Carol.

Lettuce is one of the easiest edible plants to grow and many gardeners will have already planted them in trays weeks ago.

But, it is important to put the lettuce in another tray now to end up with even more leaves.

Carol explained that “little gem” is her favourite type of lettuce.

The gardening expert had a tray of the little gem lettuce but she had “let them become a little big”.

She therefore tapped the tray hard to get the soil and lettuce out, and then pinched a few leaves between her fingers and thumb.

This is how viewers should prick out lettuce seedlings, Carol explained.

“Just in that tiny pinch there are four little plants,” she said.

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She continued: “You should take hold of the seed leaves and use these leaves to separate them apart.”

Carol then took a seedling and pressed it into “our standard potting mixture” in a potting tray.

She recommended giving the seedlings a thorough water before putting them back into the greenhouse.

“It’s a really good idea to keep on sowing them every few weeks,” Carol advised.

This will ensure “lots of fresh leaves”.

Tomatoes are another great edible to grow now, according to Carol.

She decided to plant plum tomato seeds, dropping each seed into the compost.

The gardening expert then placed a fine layer of grit on top of the seeds, but warned not to sprinkle compost on top “because they [the seeds] need light”.

The grit might look dense but the light does get through to the seeds.

Carol then went on to explain she will water the seeds by standing the tray in shallow water “until I can see the grit is damp”, and then putting the tray in the greenhouse.

As for beans, Carol used the seeds from inside a long yellow bean and pushed them down into a pot.

Edibles grown now should be ready to eat by the end of summer or September.

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