It's January. The lettuce I planted in November is puny, but it's still alive. Normally by this point, some rascal has chewed holes all through it or the cold or the heat (or a bipolar contrast of the two) have strangled it to death. So alive, but tiny, is definitely a plus.
Weeding has been the key with this garden. I've learned that dollar weed can survive anything, and anything that kills dollar weed, also kills vegetables. Pulling them up (over and over and over) seems to be the only thing that keeps them at bay. To help with the puniness problem, I applied some slow release fertilizer as a side dressing. Hopefully that will encourage growth in the lettuce. The two photos above show seedlings that I transplanted about a month ago. The photo below is of some I did today. I started them too close together and so their roots were all intertwined, a delicate problem to correct. I'm pretty sure they're going to love having a lot more room in the big garden. I realize the lettuce is a ticking time bomb. I don't know how much cool weather we have left, and I know the lettuce won't be happy when it gets hot again.
Curious about the grid system? It's square foot gardening. Check it out here.
Lesson learned: although cheaper, planting lettuce by seed is a tedious and lengthy process. I'm definitely thinking of buying established lettuce plants next year and actually getting an edible, bigger than micro-greens harvest.
I also need to research heat and drought tolerant lettuce varieties for year round growing. Is there such a thing?
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