It'll look awesome until/unless the pests find it or a hard freeze does it in.

Not as high N as some others but works great if you get some good hard freezes in the winter. If not you may have to pull out a few of the bigger stalks/root balls that don't break down but that's not a big deal.

And it gives you some good fall lettuce to eat. :)

Dave

PS: left over radish seeds work good too

Yes, it depends if you want to eat or mulch. But lettuce seeds germinate at relatively low temps, and you will find that if you direct seed in, say, early september, they will not come up because the soil is too warm. They may come up later or in the spring, depending on weather.

To eat in Fall, seed them indoors and transplant them. To eat in spring, do the same but cover with a hoop house around Thanksgiving and use cold hardy varieties (romaine is a typical one). To mulch, it is as Dave says.

Thank you for the info. Think I'll give it a try.

I use lettuce year-round in zone 8. I put it under squash and corn to keep down weeds. When they are about to go to seed, I just pull them up and let them lay on top of the soil as mulch to retain moisture as summer heats up in August. I use them as attractive borders where I can't weed easily, and they are great at keeping out weeds. In the fall, I grow a crop for food and extra to throw into the compost. It breaks down so quickly, so I can use the compost in February, when I am ready to plant early spring crops. I also really like sweet peas for the high nitrogen and fast decomposition. Another poster mentioned radish seeds for cover crops. I needed to break up hard soil, so I threw in some daikon radish seeds. They did an amazing job. Root vegetables are a great cover if you are interested in no-till gardening. Just keep topping with compost and let the roots and worms do their job!