Tag Archives: lettuce

Fall salad

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TWE dinner salad 110213When Labor Day weekend hits the state of Utah, it marks the end of the garden season for many of us. Here we are in the first week of November and my garden looks like early spring. Salad greens pulled tonight included a cut-and-come again lettuce, spinach, chard, and mizuna. We added a just ripened tomato, black beans, fresh carrots, and a shunkyo radish, along with croutons, blackened chicken, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and fresh ground pepper. We will be able to have a different tasting salad every night between now and the end of February. Protecting those gardens in zone 6 with plastic and row covers is the way to do it. I’ll be having a winter garden class in the first week of December. I hope to be able to show everyone in attendance how easy this is to do and become truly self-sufficient.

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Claytonia

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claytonia 110113This is a great tasting gem! Also known as miners lettuce because the early California gold miners ate it on the way out west. I think it’s actually categorized as a weed. It’s amazingly productive and keeps coming back all winter or spring. It goes to seed in warm weather but is a great addition to your winter salad mixes. In the square foot garden you plant 9 of these per square. A little later in the year these start to grow a small, edible white flower. You’re guests will probably never know what this is in your salads as you entertain during the winter months, but they will certainly love it.

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In 148 square feet?

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TWE-getting it ready for winter3We’ve had 3 or 4 significant frosts already.  I’m getting ready to cover this structure with greenhouse plastic.  I’ll only then be using a weighted floating row cover to put over the crops.  As we head into winter, this is what’s growing in just 148 square feet of garden space: 20 pounds of potatoes, 108 heads of lettuce, 8 arugula plants, 320 carrots, 117 spinach plants, 36 mizuna plants, 45 claytonia plants, 4 minutina, 24 komatsuna, 27 mache, 80 radishes, 36 beets, 48 turnips, 44 Swissl chard, 9 onions, 36 chives, 16 radicchio, 63 leeks, 2 kale plants, 20 poc choi, 2 parsley plants, 1 rosemary plant, 45 tatsoi, 36 kohlrabi, and 4 plants of cilantro.  We’re ready.

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Time to look for those deals

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2 star lettuce and chard 101113Today I pulled up all of my drip irrigation lines as I haven’t watered with my automated system in a month.  I’ve been hand watering with free water from my Friskars rainbarrel.  It holds 48 gallons of water, and it fills up in about 20 minutes with any decent rainstorm.  I bought mine for $18 a year ago because it was the last one Home Depot had and also because it had a little white smudge on it.  It’s been great to have around.  I’ve used less metered water this year than any other even though I’ve grown more than I ever have.  I think it’s a good time to look for these closeout bargains at stores in your neighborhood.  Rainbarrels, seeds, trowels, and other garden equipment can usually be found for great deals this time of year.  This is what my gardens look like right now-things are up and alive and all looking good for my winter harvest.  Clockwise from upper left is open leaf radicchio(Fiero), chard, 2 Star lettuce, and Komatsuna.  I noticed today that I’m still getting 7 hours of full sun on my gardens.  It’s almost like spring but I have no pests this time of year.  The winter harvest should be great.

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For the healthy types….

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fall wheatgrass and prizeheadThis is wheatgrass. I can’t stand the stuff, but my wife loves to juice it-she calls it her medicine. Oh, well-to each his/her own. This is planted and harvested in 10-12 days. I only cut it once and then I empty the square and plant something else. Since it’s so late in the season and this particular bed gets little winter sun, I won’t replant this square with anything. I’ll begin to harvest and empty this entire 4X8′ box for the season and when it’s done, I’ll add my soil amendments and let it sit for the winter. It won’t be planted with anything until next spring. That’s prizehead next to the wheatgrass-an easy and tasty lettuce that anyone can grow.