Leafy Greens and Green Pastures

Maybe peace can be found in the leafy green rows of a garden.

When someone says the word “garden,” what color comes to mind?

I would imagine, for many, the color green is what one thinks of. Green signifies growth and life, and it comes in many shades. There is the deep green of spinach and the light green of butter lettuce. Mint, chives, basil, and rosemary each have their own shade, too.

New green growth is also one of the first signs of spring after a long, cold winter. When that first green is spotted, hope for warmer weather is alive! And, as the seasons change, that continual green growth sustains the garden throughout the summer.

Green signifies life.

In every garden I have grown, I always have had some variety of lettuce. However, 2026 is my first season growing lettuce from seed! In 2025, I moved to a town that is about 500 to 700 feet lower in elevation than where I had been living the previous three years. That small change in elevation, has allowed me to grow so much more from seed, and my growing season has also extended. While I am still in zone 6b, my location move has changed my gardening techniques.

Across two elevations, varieties of leafy greens that I have grown so far are . . .

Green Leaf Lettuce

my first garden lettuce

This variety I grew from starts, and it was a lovely green for salads and sandwiches. However, I made the mistake of placing the starts WAY too close together. This resulted in issues with pests in my heads of lettuces.

Additionally, this particular variety was not very heat tolerant. As soon as hot temperatures hit, it didn’t do well. Nonetheless, this variety is excellent for the first harvest of the garden season. Additionally, seeds or starts could then be planted a second time mid-season for a nice, fall harvest.

Romaine

my second garden: romaine on the left

Similar to green leaf, romaine is excellent for first harvest and for planting again for a fall harvest. In my second year of gardening, I learned the beauty of growing more than one variety of lettuce. When two varieties are grown, it provides a great mix for salads.

Romaine leaves also are great for lettuce-wrapped recipes, because they hold up better than the green leaf variety. It also provides a good crunch in salads. However, as soon as hot temperatures arrived, the edges of the romaine leaves split, browned, and developed a bitter taste. Romaine does best in the moderate, late spring/early summer temperatures.

Arugula

While technically not a lettuce, it is still a green! I planted arugula this year for the first time and was delightfully surprised at how fast it grew. Within a week of planting the seeds, I had little sprouts coming up. In the cold overnight lows of May and June, my little arugula sprouts thrived.

Arugula is great to grow in the cool season. It has a strong, mustard flavor, so a little goes a long way in salads and recipes. When the weather gets too hot for it, it will bolt, signifying the end of its life cycle.

Butterhead Lettuce

By far, butterhead lettuce has been my favorite variety to grow, because it has been very heat tolerant!

I purchased a pack of butterhead lettuce seeds just this year, and this particular variety has proven to do quite well in hot temperatures. At the end of July, I am still harvesting large amounts of lettuce 1-2 times per week. It is tender and mild in flavor and great for salads and sandwiches.

The Peace of Green Pastures

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.”

- Psalm 23:1-3, RSV-CE

Leafy greens make me think of the lush green pastures in which the Lord invites us to rest. Green signifies life. The 23rd Psalm conveys a beautiful image of the tender, loving care of God, who leads and restores us.

Think of the peace that would arrive, if we allowed the Lord to help us rest and be restored on a regular basis: “the peace that surpasses all understanding” (Phil 4:7). Daily, there are numerous tasks that demand our attention. It can be difficult to remember to return to the source of life, the Creator, for rest and rejuvenation.

So, when we don’t have a stream nearby or a green pasture to walk through, maybe peace can be found in communication with God, in the leafy green rows of a garden.

In Christ,

Lauren

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