Ready to welcome spring with your own green thumb, but want to start small? Try a lettuce container garden. Follow these three quick steps, and you’ll have the base for a delicious spring salad in no time. In fact, I like to refer to these containers as living salad bowls.

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Here’s what you’ll need:

• 18-inch container with saucer (I love using traditional round terra cotta planters with predrilled drainage holes.)
• 2 six-packs of lettuce plants (I suggest trying arugula, oak leaf or buttercrunch, my favorite.)
• potting soil with a slow-release fertilizer

Planting Instructions:

1. Fill your container with soil to about six inches below the top.
2. Plant the lettuce in the container, and then fill the pot with additional soil, leaving about one inch of space between the soil and the top of the container to allow you to water easily.
3. Place the container in a spot that receives full sun to partial shade, and keep the soil consistently moist. When it’s time to harvest, cut the leaves above the crown. If you continue to care for your lettuce, it should grow back so you have a new crop to harvest every few weeks.