The Makkelijke Moestuin in 3 minutes

The Makkelijke Moestuin in 3 minutes

Here you'll read how, with our system, you can harvest up to 5x more than from a regular vegetable garden. On just a few square meters, all natural, pesticide-free, and with almost no work.

The full Makkelijke Moestuin guide

If you want to read everything.

Makkelijke Moestuin vs traditional vegetable garden

1. Makkelijke Moestuin vs traditional vegetable garden

Giving each plant enough light, air, water, space, nutrients, and attention is pretty tricky. Not in a Makkelijke Moestuin: there, it happens all by itself.

 About us

2. About us

Why Jelle started Makkelijke Moestuin, how it grew into a movement, and why we work differently from most companies.

 The raised bed

3. The raised bed

The raised bed is the heart of the Makkelijke Moestuin system. Its smart setup gives your plants almost everything they need from the start.

 The soil mix

4. The soil mix

In a Makkelijke Moestuin, you don't use garden soil but a special growing mix in which all your plants thrive.

 The water reservoir

5. The water reservoir

Why a smart water reservoir helps your plants grow better while saving you time and effort: how it works, and how and when to water.

6. The sowing system

In a Makkelijke Moestuin, you sow in 30 x 30 cm squares instead of rows, placing each plant in the right position with the right spacing.

Heat Today will be hot in the south of the Netherlands: up to 33 degrees! Check whether your reservoir is still full, whether the mix is still moist, shade vulnerable plants around midday, and wait with sowing until it cools down.

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Lamb's lettuce

Product information

Sowing in:
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F
M
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Description

Lamb's lettuce is a great vegetable for late fall, winter, and early spring. Ideal for your empty vegetable patches at the end of summer.

Specifications

Sowing time: Feb - March and mid-July - Sept
Height: 5-15 cm
Weight: 1 gram

In the app

Sowing: 1 February - 31 March , 15 July - 30 September

Level 1

seeds sown

Level 2

first seedlings

Level 3

seedlings

Level 4

small plants

Level 5

first harvest

Level 6

harvesting continues

  • Currently only shipping to the Netherlands and Belgium
  • Choose your preferred delivery date
  • Sent by PostNL or Transmission
  • Track & Trace in your inbox
  • The app helps you with almost everything you do in your vegetable garden: sowing, tending, and harvesting.
  • If something goes wrong, the app tells you what steps to take.
  • If that doesn’t work, you can ask us for advice.
  • If that still doesn’t help, we’ll look for other solutions together. Until we get it right.

Is lamb's lettuce nutritious?

Lamb's lettuce provides several vitamins and minerals, including vitamins K, A and C, folate, iron and beta-carotene.

Like winter purslane, it also contains omega-3 fatty acids.

More about our lamb's lettuce

Lamb's lettuce plants are small and compact. You can sow them early in spring. Because they cope well with cold weather, you can also sow them in summer for autumn and winter. The leaves are longer and larger than the lamb's lettuce usually sold in supermarkets and are delicious in winter and spring salads.
  • Variety: Grote Noordhollandse
  • Family: leafy vegetables
  • Plants per square: 9
  • Height: 5 to 15 cm
  • Sowing time: February to March and mid-July to September
  • Sowing depth: 0.5 to 1 cm
  • Germination: 14 to 21 days at 10 to 20°C
  • Time to harvest: 7 to 10 weeks
  • Sunlight: Grows in sun or shade
  • Packet contents: approximately 200 seeds, enough for 8 squares
Lamb's lettuce belongs to the valerian family rather than the lettuce family. As none of our other vegetables belongs to this family, we group it with the leafy vegetables.

What do you need to grow lamb's lettuce?

In addition to the seeds, you will need:
Lamb's lettuce seeds ready for sowing
Lamb's lettuce seeds

How do you sow and grow lamb's lettuce?

You will find this lamb's lettuce in the free Makkelijke Moestuin app. It explains step by step how to sow, grow and harvest it.
 
Every vegetable passes through a series of stages, which we call levels. The app tells you exactly what to do at each level and regularly asks you to check whether your plants are ready to move on to the next one.
 
So you do not need to know how to grow lamb's lettuce successfully before you begin. But if you would like to read ahead, you can do so below.
Lamb's lettuce plants growing through severe frost
Lamb's lettuce can even withstand severe frost

Level 1: Sowing lamb's lettuce

Loosen the MM-mix in a square near the front of the raised bed, then sow as follows:
  1. make 9 holes in the square, no deeper than 1 cm
  2. place 3 to 4 seeds in each hole
  3. carefully close the holes
Depending on the weather and time of year, you will see the first green shoots emerge 2 to 3 weeks later.

Levels 2 and 3: Lamb's lettuce seedlings

As soon as the first seedlings emerge, you know things are going well. They probably will not all appear at once, but most should have emerged after about a week.

The plants remain small. If several seedlings emerge from one hole, simply leave them together. There is no need to thin them out.

Sow a few more seeds in any empty spots. Apart from that, there is nothing you need to do.
Small lamb's lettuce seedlings in MM-mix
Lamb's lettuce seedlings

Level 4: Caring for your lamb's lettuce

Another two weeks later, your seedlings will have grown into small plants.

You will still have very little to do over the next month. Give them some water in dry weather and occasionally remove a dead or yellow leaf. Easy.

They usually grow without problems and are rarely troubled by pests.
Young lamb's lettuce plants growing in a square
Small lamb's lettuce plants

Level 5: Harvesting

At this stage, which you reach about 9 to 10 weeks after sowing in spring, the plants are ready for their first harvest.

You can harvest them in two ways.

Method 1:
Cut or pick individual leaves. As long as you leave the centre of each plant intact, it will keep producing new leaves and you can continue picking for several weeks.

Method 2:
Cut the plants 2 cm above the soil. They will regrow, and after about 3 weeks you can harvest them again.
Mature lamb's lettuce ready to harvest in an MM-mini
Lamb's lettuce in an MM-mini, ready to harvest

How can you use lamb's lettuce?

I prefer eating the leaves raw in salads. In winter, I also add a handful to green smoothies in the morning, when there are fewer other fresh greens available.

You can also cook lamb's lettuce very briefly, stir the raw leaves through mashed potato dishes or use it to make soup.

The final levels

During the next level, keep harvesting the lamb's lettuce until the plants begin to flower. The leaves will then become bitter and much less tasty.

At the final level, empty the square or MM-mini and prepare it for the next vegetable.

Mature lamb's lettuce plants nearing flowering
Mature lamb's lettuce plants that are about to flower

So, what is stopping you from growing lamb's lettuce?

It is a tasty, easy vegetable to grow, especially when most of the squares in your raised bed would otherwise be empty. There are also very few insects and slugs around at that time of year, so you will hardly need to worry about them.

And with our materials and app, you have plenty of help along the way.
View lamb's lettuce in the shop

PS:

Lamb's lettuce also grows well in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse. You can even sow it in the middle of winter. The leaves will be slightly paler and less firm than those grown outdoors.

The lamb's lettuce below was sown in a cold frame in December. It took a long time to emerge, but the plants then grew faster than those outside. The leaves also became more tender and longer. The photo was taken on 1 April.
Lamb's lettuce growing in a covered cold frame
Lamb's lettuce in a covered cold frame