Thursday, March 28, 2013

Sprouts 2013: Lettuce Turnip the Beet


Lettuce!

I also have some dill, red chard, kale, parsley, and I think maybe carrots? growing. I planted my winter garden a little late and my main objective was to grow lettuce. This is my first harvest! I clipped this last week, and already the lettuce grew back in!  I am looking forward to planting my spring garden, but I want wait until the lettuce stops producing.

1 comment:

  1. Garden Guru here,

    As the weather gets warmer, the lettuce will start to become more bitter. So clip the leaves young (think baby spinach size) and when they no longer taste good, it's time for the plant to go. You'll probably be good until May. Also, watch for aphids. They come when the plant begins to weaken at the end of its season, thus signaling that it's time to go, and would prefer a quick and painless death rather than a slow one of nasty aphids.

    I just picked a bunch of lettuce today too! Also, I have random heads of lettuce growing in my (gray) gravel out front. Stray seeds blew over last season, I guess. How funny is that?

    Also, right now is THE perfect time for planting your summer garden. I would at least get some tomato transplants and some squash/melon/or cucumber seeds planted. You can do another bigger round in early May when your lettuce bitters. Oh, and do a new top layer of soil in that special blend I told you about (like a good 4-6" layer) of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost (from 5 different sources - look in ingredient list on bag) and 1/3 vermiculite (pricey but it's garden GOLD and you'll never have to replace it ... any of it, actually).

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