The best way to get both is not to grow lettuce but to grow spinach. Nutritionally speaking, spinach is a super-champ of the vegetable garden. Spinach has twice as much protein, calcium, iron, potassium, Vitamin A, Vitamin B, and B-2, niacin and Vitamin C as any other of the leafy greens. Spinach is easy to grow especially in this area of Texas. Commercial growers in this area produce 90 percent of all the spinach consumed in the United States and almost 50 percent of the entire world's supply.
Spinach is an unusual vegetable.
It shares the honor with asparagus of being a dioecious plant. F. If planted in late spring, when hot weather is approaching, the plant will quickly form a flower stalk, going to seed after the development of only a few leaves. Because of the fungus diseases which damage spinach growth and leaf appearance, only certain varieties should be used. Spinach is a cool-season crop which should be planted from seed in September. Spinach seed germinates very poorly in warm soils.