Tag Archives: lettuce

Square foot gardening-Winter planning

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arugulaWith day length shortening, temperatures beginning to cool, and precipitation shortly to follow now is the perfect time to plan your winter garden. It’s a lot easier if you live in zones 8 and higher, but for zone 6 and below, we have some thinking to do.

The first step that I like to take is to simply list the items I want to grow. There’s information floating around on the internet that show 30+ different crops that can be grown in our zones and lower during winter. I’ve tried virtually all of them over that past 5 years and have had a great experience. But I’ve also found that many of those crops were things we didn’t enjoy eating. Maybe I should say we didn’t enjoy eating them as much as other tested and tried things. It’s a thrill to know that you’re able to go out and harvest minutina, but it didn’t do much for out taste buds.

Here’s a short list of things that I’ll be getting ready very soon. Spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, mache, beet greens, radishes, tatsoi, carrots, claytonia, and mizuna. We love simple salads just harvested in January from the garden. There’s other items that I may grow if I decide I want to stir-fry a few dishes. Things like bok choi, mustards, turnips, and leeks would be good choices.

I came across a really fun blog a year ago. I’m not a subscriber but I check in every once in a while to see what she’s doing. And, she’s doing the same thing as I am! But she’s much better at showing it. Take a look at her winter garden-you can find it here.  I love what she does.  You’ll also notice that’s she’s kept a record of the amount of produce and veggies harvested during the winter months.  Think about that quantity.  Although there’s a lot of money to be saved-for sure-the real reason to winter garden is the taste!  And with virtually no work, it’s the most enjoyable of all gardening season.  Or, at least it can be.

Fall square foot gardens

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muirThis is a great time of year to begin direct seeding your lettuce. All the things that loved the spring season can be done one more time before the gardening year ends-at least for those living in zones 4-7. Lettuce, radishes, chard, spinach, arugula, bok choi, and cilantro are some of the things that can be started right now. But, don’t wait too much longer!

Why don’t you try a variety of lettuces this fall? I’ll be planting 8 or so varieties that all taste and look different. The fall gardner is one of the easiest and rewarding to grow-the pests are leaving, temperatures are cooling, and we get more rain to lessen our workload in the garden. If you have a brussel sprout transplant now would be the time to put that it too. It’s got to be a pretty good sized transplant but you’ll be rewarded with some delicious treats come the end of October or mid-November.

I’ll be hosting a guest post shortly on the topic of pest management. Keep an eye out and tell me what you think about some of the ideas.[ois skin=”1″]

Square Foot Gardening Harvest

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TWE Summer basket #4This time of year is a lot of fun. All the planning put into the garden are paying off by way of large harvests. Lettuce, carrots, basil, cherry tomatoes, squash, zucchini, chard, cucumbers, melons of various varieties, corn, etc. The most enjoyable part for me has been the summer lettuces. We’ve had a pretty hot summer and I’ve been able to grow the specialty lettuces right through the season. And we’ve got more hot weather coming in the next week. Once you hit that 85+ degree mark it’s very difficult to grow lettuce without having it bolt and go to seed.

I’ve been able to grow vegetables and produce for 8 families this summer. I think I’ll keep all those customers for the fall season as well. I love the idea and concept of CSA’s. When I think of CSA’s this is what comes to mind: lot of work requiring time that I don’t have. If you know neighbors or friends who belong to CSA’s they love them but are always a little perplexed by some of the items they get in their baskets. It’s been estimated that 15-20% of CSA items are thrown away because customers don’t know what to do with that kohlrabi-or whatever different thing they might have in their basket. To compensate for this CSA’s will add a recipe card for ideas of how to use unknown or unfamiliar things.

My baskets have no recipe cards because they contain items that everyone knows what to do with. There’s no recipe cards needed for the items you see in this basket. You may think it’s boring but my customers are always getting organic produce and veggies that have been harvested just a few hours earlier. I’ve had comments saying that nobody can beat the taste of these lettuce, cucumber, or cherry tomato varieties. And the squash/zucchini varieties are very popular as well. I do vary the varieties and color of the lettuces throughout the 6 week period. Either way, I think it’s tough to beat the taste of my salad greens and veggies.

If you haven’t gotten the harvest you expected or things don’t seem to do grow well, you might want to consider learning the square foot gardening method. The backbone of the system is the soil-which is perfect for anything you’d like to grow. There is the upfront cost of putting it together, but how much does it cost you in terms of money and frustration to have those same old tiny tomatoes that don’t grow to full size-and it’s been going on for years? Or carrots that don’t come up? Or, how about the critters that attack your garden every year? And we haven’t even mentioned the weeding! The square foot gardening system is so easy to learn. You’ll have 100% of the harvest in 20% of the space of that old traditional row garden.

Labor day will be here in a week. This spells the end or the beginning of the end of the gardening season for the year. I don’t know about you but I’m getting ready for my fall crop. And since I haven’t spent a lot of time weeding and watering I have a lot of energy left to devote to that.[ois skin=”1″]

Thinking fall in your square foot garden

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cherokee and concept lettuceI say square foot garden but it could be any garden. This is the perfect time to put in your entire fall crop. Everything planted now will be harvested by mid to late October-and you’ll be so glad you attempted to grow during this season. Because it’s been a long summer of pulling weeds, watering, etc. many gardeners think about ending their growing season around the Labor Day weekend. It’s the official end of summer and things are winding down.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact for me, this is coming up on the best time of year to garden. Why? First, most of the pests have headed south or will be soon. Second, the season usually gives us water from Mother Nature so this cuts back on your watering time. Third, all the great crops of spring are now back!

In the next couple of weeks I will be emptying squares and replanting with the following crops: lettuce, spinach, red ace beets(for the greens), arugula, bok choi, carrots(for winter as well), leeks(for winter), swiss chard, radishes, tokyo bekana, and mizuna. Some of these will be harvested at once but others will be left to continue through the winter months. And there’s a whole other bunch of fun crops that can be planted in a few weeks that do best during the winter months. More on that later.

I hope you give the fall garden a try. You’ll find it’s a lot easier and a lot less work than spring and summer gardening. When you harvest your first head of lettuce along with some spinach and swiss chard for an evening salad you’ll be so glad you did[ois skin=”1″]

A summer square foot garden

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summer green onionsWith some advanced planning you can have delicious scallions to go along with your other salad greens.  Scallions, or green onions, that have been just pulled, like everything else, have an exceptional taste compared to what you’re used to from the store.

I like to grow everything from seed.  There’s  several reasons why I do that. First, I know how they have been taken care of.  Proper growing conditions, consistent watering, and a true organic environment are things you don’t know about when purchasing transplants.  Second, the price of seeds vs. transplants.  I can spend $3 on a packet of scallions and I”ll have enough to grow for 2 years.  For that same price you’ll get 15-20 scallions starts.  The satisfaction of being able to start your own crops and then have them go from garden to table is very rewarding.  The third reason is taste.  These homegrown scallions are much milder and sweeter than store bought.  One other advantage is you can use a dibble to plant your newly starts of scallions a lot deeper than you would by just planting 16 seeds per square foot.  This means that the white part of the scallion can be much taller, which is a good thing.  There’s nothing like having a green onion with a white stem thats 6 plus inches tall rather than the 1 inch ones you buy at the store.

In terms of timing, scallions will take 100 days from seed to harvest.  These were started long ago and are ready for harvest.  Right now is the perfect time to sprout scallions for your fall/winter harvest.  The timing will be perfect.  They will be large enough to either harvest or to keep in the ground to last throughout the winter season.  Give them a try, you’ll be glad you did[ois skin=”1″]