Wish I could help more, but I’ve never tried to grow chives in our summers. I think you live somewhere hot and dry; what is your Sunset zone?
What’s that in the third photo from the bottom? I thought it was chives.
Love the socks.
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I almost cropped that out but told myself “nobody will even notice” ! 
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Ahhh! I took that picture in the spring (on May 6), which is when I try to grow lettuce, and I think that was a “volunteer” cippolini onion seedling from a prior planting.
Checking out zone 12!
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I generally try to avoid boxed or bagged lettuces and other leaves but make exceptions for arugula, baby spinach, or a small box of HEB’s mesclun. A fresh head of red lettuce is ok, but a fresh head of Bibb is way better to me.
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I went out and looked at the chives, mostly dead, but a couple of live strings. Man, I hope it cools off some soon, it was 109 today. Chives hate too much heat, like pineapple sage, which crapped out right after I planted it, and so did the sorrel. I’ll try again once we’re out of Satan’s pizza oven.
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I don’t really like any color of lettuce.
If I’m making a salad much prefer things like arugula, kale, yam leaves, pea sprouts, etc.
Lettuce (no matter the color or type, iceberg, butter, etc.) just seems like a waste of space.
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You don’t consider arugula a type of lettuce?
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I disagree with you since as a chef in a restaurant, I frequently utilise red lettuce in my recipes and my guests enjoy it. I believe you ought to attempt it with a fresh recipe. 
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Just butting in to say that Arugula is a cruciferous veg, closer to kale and cabbage. So other than being a leafy vegetable, nah.
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Besmirching Ipse’s abilities in a kitchen might not be a good move.
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LOL.
I doubt I am even half the cook when compared to most of you, even on my best days.
There is a reason most (even many) restaurants use lettuce. It’s a filler, and a cheap one at that. It allows for the perception of greater volume of food, without simultaneously incrementally increasing the cost of the food on a 1:1 basis.
This is important for restaurants because the primary goal of restaurants is to turn a profit, making good food is simply an unintended consequence of that goal.
Lettuce is also oftentimes a key ingredient for people trying to lose weight. As again, it increases the volume of food without (this time by contrast) simultaneously increasing the caloric density of the food.
But for me, as a home cook, I am generally trying to create food that is delicious without consideration (most of the time) to costs and/or caloric density.
Having grown up in restaurant kitchens, and still in the restaurant business now, I can truly appreciate the role of lettuce (and other filler foods like white rice, potatoes (in any form), etc. in a restaurant’s arsenal to maintain costs and appease the “eye candy” factor necessary to keep the hungry hoi polloi happy.
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I don’t have a long or loving history with lettuce but I think it adds texture to sandwiches, and I often enjoy a salad with lettuce, especially when someone else ( usually in a restaurant) makes it. My husband does too, and he is crazy picky. We especially like “chopped salads”.
I also think lettuce is interesting and attractive in the garden, if you can keep the snails, slugs, and earwigs down.
OTOH, when dining out, I know better than to eat the bread, because I won’t get through, let alone fully enjoy the rest of the meal if I start with that.
I don’t know if I am “common” or not. Do “common” folk spend this much time on HO?
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I know it vexes restaurant staff, but I often have a simple salad with a light vinaigrette after the main. It is a refreshing pause before dessert. That is how we have it at home most of the time.
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How do you get anything to grow in the summer. It’s hot enough to braise in Austin.
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Fall through spring is when the local nurseries do the most business, I believe.
Less a braise than a broil here.
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I have loved salads all my life, regardless of whether I was on a diet or not (but you make several assumptions that seem to be more your personal opinion than anything). I love all kinds of lettuce, and very much enjoy when a restaurant does a good job combining them for my eating pleasure. Mâche, butter, bibb, frisée, Belgian endive, radicchio, oak leaf, micro greens – bring 'em on, I say. The more variety, the better.
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I am not picky. I would get red lettuce when I get bored with others. Otherwise, I usually go with the standard lettuce.
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