Only the Strong Survive

The diy project that I first used last spring had two bountiful crops last year. Varieties of leaf lettuce, baby greens, green onions and spinach were harvested out of the little space.

I ignored the mini-garden over the winter, still a couple of the hearty mustard greens survived, I will be using them in a salad today to spice up the store bought lettuce that I have in the fridge.

Between the mustard greens, I have sown lettuce and other greens. I gave the area a good dose of diatomaceous earth (aka diatomite or DE). This slug bait is made from ground up marine fossils, it breaks down easily, is beneficial to  the soil, and will not harm pets, wildlife or people. It bothers the slugs by scratching their soft underbelly. The scratches become mortal wounds for the slugs.

If the weather continues to be mild, this mini-greens garden will be producing again throughout the spring.

Fall Mini-greens Garden

The fall planting of the wood pallet made into a mini-greens garden is happily growing as long as I remember to give it a shot a water every couple of days.

I had a friend ask me why I had a tomato plant growing at the front of one of the lettuce rows.

I replied that it was my early frost detection tomato. Actually it had just popped up as a volunteer. I had noticed it when I was planting this fall crop. I did not have the heart to pull it out and since frost hits tomatoes quickly, I left it to grow so that I would know right away when the temperature dips to 32 degrees.

This last week the thermometer has read in the upper 30’s several times so any day now we will have that first frost. At this elevation we can freeze anytime after the first of September so we are living on borrowed time.

April Revisited

In April I had used a wood pallet for DIY project mini-greens garden. The small plot gave me loads of fresh greens early in the year.  It was originally planted on April 19.

Since it was just outside my kitchen window, I was able to keep a close eye on it and monitor water supply.

Loaded with Greens

My experiment with the wood pallet made into a mini greens garden has exploded with fresh salad makings.

It has cut down on the amount of weeding I would normally have to do, I only had one bunch of grass that decided to grow between the slats with the greens.

One Dud out of Six

My experiment with the wood pallet made into a mini-greens garden has been growing nicely. But one of the packets was a dud, not a single  germinated from the packet. That is very unusual for me. I have never had a whole packet refuse to grow, and it was red leaf lettuce no less. Lettuce is one of the easiest seeds to grow!

I’ll just wait for a cool, rainy day to transplant some from one of the other rows. Or rather, a cool, rainy day when I remember to transplant from one of the other rows. And it is time to start the thinning process anyway. The thinned greens are so tender and delicious. The ones that I don’t transplant can be added directly to the dinner salad.