Our greenhouse is complete, and we are bursting at the seams with spring vegetable starts. Come out and visit, but not just yet. Our plants are a bit small yet, but it is too early to set any tender plants outside anyway. In just a few weeks, ready to sell, we will have red leaf lettuce, red romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, and spinach. Parsley and sweet basil plants won’t be too far behind that, maybe a week or so. Yum, yum; pesto! Tomato, eggplant, and pepper plants in various varieties will round out our early offerings. All of it should be ready in time for Mother’s Day. By then the soil will have warmed up enough to be inviting to tender young roots, and all danger of frost will be past. We like to plant our lettuce in the garden as young plants- we call them “starts.” They provide numerous advantages over sowing seeds directly in the garden.
- It saves seeds: every seed we sow in the greenhouse makes its way into a pot, which is nurtured along until it is time to set them out in the garden.
- There is no thinning of seedlings in the garden: nobody likes thinning tiny lettuce seedlings in the springtime. The “starts” get set to their final spacing at the onset.
- You get about a month’s jump on the conventional method of starting lettuce in your garden.
- Set established plants into pots or window boxes: Container gardening is great for those short on space . . . think window or raised planter boxes. Pintrest has lots of creative ideas for container gardening. Find a gardening style that best suits your needs & enjoy. When these early vegetables are finished you can replace them with summer flowers or even new vegetables for fall.
Many times we pick a batch of lettuce before we set the plants out in the garden. Then as the plants grow in the field, you can pinch what you need to top of a sandwich, or make a fresh salad. Sadly, all too soon it is a race to hot weather when the plants “bolt” to make seed, and become unfit to eat. There’s always a fall crop to anticipate and plan. Being raised on wilted lettuce growing up, we really enjoy this crop. We grow spinach the same way as lettuce, adding this tasty and nutritious green to salad and sandwich alike. Come out and check out our plants, and plan for future trips when our other crops are ready for you.