Most of your questions/curiosity can be resolved above. Did you start with seeds? Perhaps you should have started these indoors... If you started with seeds outdoors, a number of things could have happened: birds ate them; the seeds were not consistently wet and/or warm enough; or they were too wet; or the soild was too heavy. The resulting crop should resemble the image on the seed packet, if you used seeds, or on the plant stick, if you bought seedlings. You can also do an internet search to find an image. When you pick the leaves, you should probably wash/rinse them to eliminate any soil bits. (Do not use soap. Water alone is adequate.) Then you eat them, yes. There is still a lot of summer left. Review the advice above, too, and consider trying lettuce again...
Most of your questions/curiosity can be resolved above. Did you start with seeds? Perhaps you should have started these indoors... If you started with seeds outdoors, a number of things could have happened: birds ate them; the seeds were not consistently wet and/or warm enough; or they were too wet; or the soild was too heavy. The resulting crop should resemble the image on the seed packet, if you used seeds, or on the plant stick, if you bought seedlings. You can also do an internet search to find an image. When you pick the leaves, you should probably wash/rinse them to eliminate any soil bits. (Do not use soap. Water alone is adequate.) Then you eat them, yes. There is still a lot of summer left. Review the advice above, too, and consider trying lettuce again...