I've always grown the purple/white head variety, putting out transplants in Spring; never tried sowing seed. But for some reason, I was thinking there was the leafy herbal looking radicchio and then there was the variety that forms heads; however the seed packet has a picture of a beautiful little head of radicchio on it so you're right. It just depends upon at what stage you want to harvest it I guess. I'll try cutting off the green leaves later and see what happens. Thanks!

Christi62, when I saw your post that the speckled BB are just now starting to flower I have a question for you. Lima beans are much more heat tolerate and actually do rather well in the heat were as the common beans like it cooler. If you planted them both at the same time I would quess that was late may? or early June. If so Commom beans need to be planted about a week after average last frost date which for you I would quess is first week of April so the common beans should be in the ground by 15 April with harvest for bush types in May and pole types in early June. The plants will be done with by July. The limas like good warm soil and can be planted early to mid May with first crop first of Aug and secound crop mid to late Sept. and with luck a third crop late Oct early Nov. I have always known that common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) Like cool nights and warm days and will not produce well when night temps exceed 70deg. The past two years have proved this bite of wisdom. I plant dozens of varieties of beans,Phaseolus vulgaris. The ones that are in the ground by mid April produce a bountiful crop the ones that are planted later will normaly only produce a small crop but with weather like the past two summers, I have had little to no production for beans planted in May . So to have a crop of beans they must be planted as soon as the soil is warmed in early spring. For us in the south we can do two crops a spring and a fall. Plant fall beans end of July thru end of Aug for pole types and mid Aug till mid Sept for bush types. Bush beans take about 4 weeks on average and pole types take 6weeks. Plant limas (Phaseolus lunatus) a couple of weeks later for you mid to late April or by mid May at the latest for harvest begining in late July till frost. I have pictures of several varieties of beans posted on my website. As of today only the limas are still producing the commom beans all died in Mid July and I still have not harvested all the seed yet. I will post some more pictures of the seed as they are harvested. Here is a link that might be useful: Beans

On a cold track, lettuce and cabbage family plants are the winners of the race. At 50°, they will show up in less than 2 weeks. Most ornamentals (in fact, most seeds) have a recommendation of 65° to 70°+ optimum soil temperature. They show up in 2 or 3 weeks, sometimes much longer. At those warm temperatures, Louise Lettuce and Terry Turnipseed would bound out of the starting gate in 2 or 3 days! I have my earliest sprouts outdoors right now (freezing overnight a couple times a week, still). They are from Asian mustard seeds. Unfortunately, they aren't ones I planted in the garden. The sprouts are growing at the foot of a backyard tree where I laid the seed stalks to dry last year before collecting (most of) the seed. Oh well, more Asian mustard is now planted where they can be enjoyed by something other than my backyard laying hens. S'

The weather here is just beginning to turn - 2 more days of 90-degree highs and then a drop into the 70s/80s with lows in the high 50s or low 60s. I'll be planting lots of leaf lettuce Thursday morning if this forecast holds true and sow more next week. I sink a few supports (garden stakes or even sturdy sticks) at the corners and in the center of the lettuce beds and drape old sheets & blankets over them at night when it frosts. This has been surprisingly successful in past years and I'm often able to pick quite a bit of beautiful fresh lettuce for Christmas dinner. Snow won't kill it off but I've found that no amount of "covers" will save it with sustained temperatures under 20°F, although it can definitely survive a quick early-morning zap. Green Ice is my favorite to string along like this, but good old Black Seeded Simpson takes to it, as well. Salad Bowl is iffy. In mid-October I'll be sowing seed into containers that I can haul inside. (I love green leaf lettuce!) Um, to actually answer your question, in my opinion no, it isn't too late for you to plant leaf lettuce, but it may (or may not!) take some babying. As for when early fall commences (weather-wise), I "feel" that our upcoming cool-down is the real deal and does signal the beginning of Fall, but that's here. We've had leaves falling for nearly 3 weeks now, the corn is drying at warp speed, everything in the garden seems to be rushing to ripen, and the dew is becoming heavier each morning. This may not be the case in your region. Sorry to be so vague!