Imagine my surprise when I pulled back the row cover at the back of my garden and found this pot full of living ‘Four Seasons’ lettuce that I had planted last fall and forgot about. It survived the winter!
I love these little mistakes that result in new discoveries. Yes, our winter was much milder than usual, but in the years that I’ve been growing the ‘Four Seasons’ variety, I had not expected it to live up to its name in my climate.
The container (an old bread box I inherited from Davin’s grandmother, with holes punched into the bottom) was twice sown last fall due to a squirrel invasion that I did not protect against. I have since transplanted several of these seedlings into raised beds and pots around the garden.
With the garden soil now workable, and unseasonably warm, I have also direct sown several lettuce varieties and greens around the garden. This has me thinking about all of the future salads we will be enjoying soon, making me realize that it was high time to pull together some of the lettuce and greens articles I have written here over the years to get you started on growing your future salads, too.
P.S. This week’s article on HGTV is up. It’s about reusing potting soil. I often use my old potting soil to grow salad greens. However, I am careful to add more nitrogen back into the depleted mix as leafy veggies need nitrogen to thrive.
P.S.S. I have added more ‘Hahms Gelbe Topftomate’ seeds to etsy.
- Growing salad greens in a recycling bin. Here’s an updated image.
- A way to prevent squirrels from digging up your freshly sown salad greens.
- Four Seasons Lettuce – A super hardy, gorgeous, heirloom butterhead variety from France.
- ‘Mascara’ Lettuce – A beautiful, red oakleaf variety that self-seeded in pots on my rooftops for years.
- Grow a Crate of Mache – It tends to perform better in the late part of the year, but I grow it in the spring as well.
- Grow lettuce greens in a hanging colander
- Plant an edible strawberry pot
- Keeping colorful lettuces happy in a pot.
- Oh, what a difference a cloche makes.
- Breakdown of a homegrown salad. Plus what to do with all of those borage seedlings!
- Extending the harvest – This article was written for fall, but the seasonal extenders can be used in the springtime, too.
- Bloody Dock – A very prolific perennial, self-seeding green. Mine are coming up right now.
- Start growing peas now and you’ll have fresh pea flowers and shoots to add to your spring salads.
https://www.yougrowgirl.com/2009/04/29/these-are-a-few-of-my-favourite-peas/
that’s is so cool! mother nature is soo awsome:)
I came across your blog from a CNN article…very inspirational! so much so that I was out planting onions, shallots and garlic in the dark last night (it was light when I started). I’m planning to start some lettuce this weekend in an unused recycling tote – thanks for the idea! (I moved up to a bigger recycling bin and the city didn’t pick up the old tote – never occured to me to use it as a planter.) Thanks!
This is fascinating! I’m worried about frost hitting us here in Michigan — even though it’s been in the 80s this past week. We’ve decided not to plant early at all. Good luck with your lettuce! :-)