Garden update: Lettuce
I mentioned in my previous post about this year’s vegetable garden that I used seed tape from Jung Seed for the first time — and, for the first time, I got lettuce seeds to germinate in my garden.
Seed tape alongside the tiny lettuce sprouts from the seeds I planted a week or so earlier. Photo taken late April.
One of the advantages of seed tape is supposed to be that you don’t have to thin the plants because they grow exactly as far apart as they’re supposed to. So this is what I had early in the week:
Lettuce before thinning
If I were growing lettuce to sell, that probably is a good density. I would hack all the plants off at the base about now and consider it done. But the way I like to use greens in my garden is to harvest the outer leaves and let the plant continue to grow so I can harvest more later — cut and come again. So, after I took the above picture, I took out every other plant and made salads from them for a couple of days. I mulched with leaf mold around the remaining plants to keep the weeds at bay.
This was last night:
Lettuce after thinning and more harvesting
I harvested enough of the outer leaves, along with some baby chard and cress, to make three big salads — Rick and I had salad with dinner and I gave the rest to a friend. I’m very pleased with my first successful lettuce crop!
How does your garden grow?
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How exciting. What lovely lettuces :). I imagine those fresh salads were wonderful.
The really are tasty salads. It always takes me a bit by surprise how delicious lettuce can be.
Super! I miss having a vegetable garden, but our trees have gotten too big and the yard is very shady now. But that’s why I go to the farmers’ market.
I bought a little potted lettuce garden last year. This morning my husband asked me if I had bought another one. We really enjoyed it. Considering I have a small strawberry garden right now, I think I should just try planting seeds there instead of getting a container garden.
How neat! I would love to grow my own produce like that. I’m moving to the middle of the desert though, so this is probably no longer viable.
There’s nothing so good as tender, homegrown spring lettuce. Congratulations on such a fine crop.
FABULOUS! Thanks for sharing such beautiful pictures.
I am passing this along to Rob. Very good to know. Thanks.
There’s nothing like crisp fresh vegetables from your own garden. Looks like your seed tape experiment is a big success. My yard doesn’t have enough hours of sunlight to successfully grow many vegetables. Luckily, my daughter-in-law is an accomplished gardener and shares her bounty with my husband and me. I’m looking forward to juicy home-grown tomatoes soon.
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I’ll bet that was one of the most delicious salads you’ve ever had!
It was! It required nothing but a simple dressing.
If only I was a gardener! It would be lovely to pick fresh lettuce. Cheers
Congratulations Joy!! You’re garden is doing great!
I sure wish I could have one, but I’d have to design a raised garden and buy the lumber and dirt because our yard is mostly sand.
there is nothing yummier or fresher than salad greens you’ve grown yourself. I can’t seem to keep the grasshoppers off my lettuce this year, they are ferocious
What a lovely crop, the seed tape idea sounds like its a winner!
I’d never heard of seed tape. Someone else told me recently that the first batch of lettuce of the year she lets keep growing until it goes to seed, that way, she has lettuce throughout the rest of the summer on its own. Enjoy. Here’s Mine
Wow–it’s a sustainable salad bar! I love the idea. It’s far too hot to grow greens here in Florida, but that seed tape makes it seem too easy. Enjoy!
Congratulations on your successful lettuce garden. The few times I’ve grown lettuce it’s tasted bitter.
I like the idea of the seed tape – I’ll have to try it when spring comes around again in Sydney
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Very cool the tape worked. I use starter plants and then usually plant more starter plants if I can find them after the Fourth of July for all summer lettuce.
It is so great to have it fresh from the garden isn’t it?
That’s a fabulous looking crop of lettuces. I’ve used seed tape for growing herbs before with quite good success.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen seed tape in Australia, which looks to be a sad thing. Congratulations on your gardening success! Your harvest looks sensational. I can only imagine how delicious it was.