I grow lettuce in a lot of different areas of my garden. Not only in the raised beds but in other areas also. My hope is to have a cold frame for raising my greens for the winter. And then eventually, a greenhouse. If I had a bigger power system I would take a serious look at hydroponics. Recently I visited a blog that had this post, Frugal Hydroponics, which is a video. I am doing research on it now.
The seed catalogs keeps coming in the mail box and I keep reading them over and over. This is one kind of so called junk mail that I love to get! What about you? Are you getting them too? They inspire me like nothing else. And they also reduce cabin fever.
Salads are an important part of my low carb meals. That is actually where the bulk of your carbs should come from. Salad and meat is what I like to eat and that is what I need for my health. Anyway, if you are growing your salad vegetables then you can afford to buy good quality meats from a local producer. This post though, is not about low carbs. It is about growing greens for your salads.
There are many varieties of greens to grow. If you study a good seed catalog, you will be overwhelmed. Don't be. Think of it a learning experience. I use Johnny's Seeds and Cook's Garden the most. One of the things about their catalogs is they are like little encyclopedias. I save them and reread them year to year. Gives me good ideas for many things. This year I plan on adding some of the oriental varieties of greens. They look interesting and there are some other salad greens I have been meaning to try.
Some of the ones I have found are called Specialty Greens, endive, escarole, lettuce, mesculin, micro greens, salad greens, sprouts and then they have special collections of lettuce. A salad lover's delight! Mesculin is one I buy every year. We use it constantly. I replant my greens all spring, summer and fall.
You can grow lettuce in containers and just keep them on your deck or put them in your backyard. I do that myself. I have them growing wherever I can fit them. I like to have some close by so I can just run out and cut some, or other times I spend time out in the garden and cut in other areas. In my opinion, you can never have too much.
Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
4 comments:
I want to grow some salad greens myself this Spring. I'm hoping my patio will get sufficient light.
I just got both catalogs you mentioned and although they're very informative, the Johnny's Seeds have a lot of crazy hybrid seeds and ones that even have been treated with insecticides in them. That freaked me out so I'll use their catalog for ideas of what I can/cannot grow but that's about it.
Good to know about the mesclun and the fact you use containers. Gives me hope. :)
Johnny's Seeds also have organic heirlooms. I usually order the Branywine tomato, the oakleaf and the Matt's Cherry Tomato from them. Baker's Heirloom seeds are popular and I just ordered a catalog from them. Sometimes you can join a seed exchange too, and if you don't have anything to exchange that is usually alright when you are just getting started.
I was reading today about how to make an inexpensive cold frame and even sent the link to my brother-in-law. Seemed very easy especially since she used old window panes that were just "junk"
The salad looks totally yummy!
We grew some fantastic lettuce in our courtyard last year, sprinkled in with flowers and rose bushes. We cut what we needed and just left everything else growing. Harvested tons of seeds. We've been using a salad table to grow spinach and lamb's lettuce all winter. It's not growing fast, especially since the table is off the ground...but it's definitely growing!
Tiffany
www.noordinaryhomestead.com
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