Tag Archives: lettuce

Overwintered greens in the square foot garden

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Very late last fall I planted many squares with different things, mostly salad greens. I did something I’ve not done before during our winter season. I usually plant earlier and then use floating row cover until the temperatures get below 28 degrees. That’s when I then add a layer of 4 ml UV plastic over the row cover and leave that on for the winter. I’ll vent if it gets over 40 degrees and it’s sunny. For the most part it stays under both covers from late November until about March 1st, with just a few venting days.

This past year I used no plastic. I wanted to see if it could grow and come up as an early spring garden in our harsh winters using just row cover. It was a record snowfall/cold winter for us in northern Utah. I pulled the floating row cover back weeks ago. The lettuce weren’t as big as the picture shows but it was certainly growing. It made it right through the winter. Now I have this really early spring garden with delicious lettuces.

every night. Snip a few greens and it keeps coming back! For a while anyway. This is a true overwintered garden vs. a winter garden. They are different. 

Keep in mind that this will not work if you have freezing temperatures with big, mature heads of lettuce. It only works with baby greens that were started and got slightly established late in the season. One or two of the bigger heads of lettuce turn to mush after a freeze or two. We all were a little tougher when we were smaller, just like lettuces šŸ™‚ 

The efficiency of a square foot garden

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This might look like a boring picture but there’s a lot too see. The pole coming out of the ground was once a  very thriving cherry tomato plant growing vertically in only 1 square. That’s it. Our evening temperatures have been mid- low 50’s and that marks a change with tomatoes. It changes the  quality of the taste and they become mushy and begin to fall off. There were still a lot of green cherry tomatoes on the plant but there’s not enough time for them to ripen. 

Looking more closely, you’ll notice 3 areas of lettuce coming up in the front of the square. I planted this a couple of weeks ago so that it will be perfectly timed to grow before the freeze hits. It’ll only be baby lettuce leaves, but these hold up much better than their more mature lettuces which turn soupy after a couple of freezes. 

I want to make sure my new lettuces get all the sun possible at this time of year. If I pulled up the entire tomato plant it would uproot the lettuces which you see growing. So, I will simply cut off the branches and the lower stem and now I have a square that will grow into winter. I’ll leave the stem in the ground until the lettuces are harvested. 

Beginning in January, this single square housed 25 carrots, 9 spinach plants, an 8′ cherry tomato plant, and now 3 heads of leaf lettuce which will remain until late December or early January. 

Not bad for one square foot. I’ve got 174 of them. šŸ™‚

Mass planting-how to get your square foot gardens going early

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It’s been five months since my last post. Many activities have pulled me away for a time but I’m back. Full throttle. This post will focus on something I’ve done for a years with lots of success. Best yet, it’s so easy.

Take a container that has a clear plastic lid on it-such as the Costco rotisserie chicken. Rinse and clean out well. Add moistened potting soil and level surface. Then heavily seed the surface with lettuce or whatever crop you’d like to grow. I might use half a packet of seeds. Cover with a very thin layer of potting soil. Water in-heavy, but not so much that its soggy and waterlogged. Place cleat lid on top.

Then get a screwdriver and heat it up on the stove. When hot, push the screwdriver through the plastic to make 9 holes on top. for venting. After that, simply place your new little greenhouse outside in the sunniest place you have. Do no work for 6-8 weeks. Zero.

Come out to find an entire container full of lettuce (or other crop) that can easily be divided up and transplanted into your gardens. Save time. Save money. Do less work. 

And, you’ll also be eating better food and know how it was cared for. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mass planting your square foot garden box

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This year I did a little experiment. I took one of those Costco rotisserie chicken containers, cleaned it out, and poked two holes in the top of the plastic dome. This was done by heating up a screwdriver over a gas flame of the stove and then I simply pushed it through the plastic.  I then sprinkled quit a few lettuce seeds in some potting soil that I placed in the bottom container, watered in, and then put the top on. It was then placed under covers of a square foot garden box. I literally did nothing. I didn’t add water, I didn’t vent, nothing. After a few weeks it all germinated. This is what it now looks like after I have been separating into individual little plugs and placing them in a square. So far, i think I’ve added 20 heads of lettuce, with at least that many more still to plant. 

For those interested in learning how to compost, I now have a recored 75 minute class available on my blog. You can learn more about it here: https://thewealthyearth.store/products/3

 

 

Winter planting the square foot gardening

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Winter gardening in northern Utah isn’t really gardening. It’s all harvesting. That means a little extra planning. The important point isn’t really the average first frost date but rather the first day we go under 10 hours of sunlight. For us, thats around November 14th. This is just one of my 4X4 SFG boxes planted for the winter. So far, the timing looks good. What’s in there? Lots. Three different kinds of lettuces, green onions, arugula, minutina, claytonia, spinach, turnips, mache, red pontiac potatoes, and tatsoi. They all love the cold and even freezing weather, except the lettuces. The baby leaf lettuces will easily make it right through the winter months. Get those gardens planted!!!