Doing A Little Planting Here And There!

GREEN! I love green!

Spring has definitely sprung here at Peaceful Forest. My husband had to mow our lawn over the week-end. But it is STILL cold! It is probably due to the constant rain we keep getting. Our grass started growing and had to be cut on the one day that it was not rainy. I managed to plant my two beds of lettuce. They are in my containers that are up off the ground. Besides the salad greens are plants that like cool. Cool but not freezing.

Lettuce planted in the 2 planters on legs!

 So since I am not sure yet when I will be able to plant in the ground, I have started more seeds. May as well have them all ready to go into the ground as soon as possible but have them already started. Saturday I started more broccoli and cauliflower. Both are low carb vegetables so I need to have them growing. This year I am going to try to dehydrate some of them and see how I do. Neither one is very good canned, unless you pickle them.

Loggers working down the road.

 

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

Growing Your Own Salad Greens

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