Grow your own Lettuce 2010

I have acquired a selection of lettuce seeds, so hopefully I will be eating a lot of varied salads this Summer!

 

Useful websites:

http://www.onepotpledge.org/pdfs/mixed_salad.pdf

http://www.onepotpledge.org/pdfs/rocket.pdf

APRIL 10TH:

Here’s some Lollo Rosso seeds that I had leftover from last year. I just sprinkled them randomly into my herb pot where I had some space and they’ve germinated quite nicely. I learned last year that they don’t like being moved, so I didn’t bother sowing them indoors and transplanting them this year.

 

Once the seedlings have grown a bit bigger I will start thinning out the smaller ones to create gaps between plants. Apparently the plants should be 20cm apart, otherwise they won't mature properly, so I will probably move 1 or 2 of them if they get really big.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a trough that I’ve half filled with compost and I’ve split into 2 sections to grow different lettuce. On the left I’ve sown Little Gem seeds in 4 corners of the space, and on the right I’ve sown a row of rocket seeds. I watered with a spray bottle so that it didn’t dislodge the seeds.

 

I’ve covered the trough with one of my propagator lids, mainly to prevent anything digging up my seeds as that was a big problem last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APRIL 19TH:

The Lollo Rosso is coming along nicely. I’ll probably start thinning them when they’re double this size, as then I’ll be able to use any thinnings for a salad or in a sandwich. The wire that you can see in the photo is my slug/snail deterrent. I pulled the wire off an old bounded diary and then just stretched it out so that it went around the whole pot. So far it’s worked a treat, along with some WD40 sprayed around the pot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rocket seeds have germinated and I’ve been watering them nearly every day as it’s been so warm lately. I’ll start harvesting leaves as soon as they’re as long as my thumb, as the more you pick the more will grow. You can cut a few leaves at a time or slice off the whole plant about 3cm above the surface of the soil. I’ll probably sow another row in the first week of May so I have a steady supply of leaves.

 

The Little Gem seeds have sprouted too. I sowed a few seeds in each corner of their section in the trough, so I will thin them out when they’re a little bit bigger. This is a Cos type of lettuce, which means it will develop a heart and become an oval shape with long crisp leaves. They will take longer to grow than the Rocket and Lollo Rosso as they are loose-leaf varieties.

MAY 1ST:

I’m really pleased at how well all my lettuce is growing. The Lollo Rosso were growing so big and had hardly any room to grow because I’d planted them so close together that I started thinning them out. I transplanted one seedling from my herb pot into my lettuce pot (in the middle section of the Little Gem) and it’s doing quite nicely now.

 

 

 

I also had to thin out the Little Gems as they are starting to fight each other for space. I transplanted some into my raised bed and also some in another row in the Rocket section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rocket is starting to look like a rampant weed as it’s growing so fast. Even though my lettuce trough is mostly covered with a large propagator lid and I sprayed WD40 on the outside rim, a snail or slug has been having a good old munch as it left behind a telltale trail of slime as evidence!

 

 

 

may 26th:

The Rocket is now ready for cutting but I haven’t been at home lately to make myself a nice salad! There are still holes in a few leaves but no slime trail, so I’m not sure what’s been having a good old nibble on my lettuce.

 

 

 

The Little Gems are doing OK but they’ve got a little way to go before they’re ready for eating.

 

The Lollo Rosso that I moved into the lettuce trough has been totally eaten by something! But I’ve still got some more plants in my herb pot so all is not lost.

 

 

 

 

3rd july:

 

My Dad gave me a 3-tiered planter so I moved all my lettuce into it and it’s really thriving since the slugs/snails can’t climb up! I also mixed in some water retaining crystals into the compost to stop it drying out so quickly.

 

This is my Little Gem lettuce after I cut it right back before we went on a week’s holiday. I’m still amazed at how it can grow back with new leaves time and time again.

Grow Your Own 2009

MAY 19TH:

I’ve finally received my raised bed from Harrod Horticultural! There were 3 parts to the delivery and I received 2 parts on Friday 15th May, which were the boards and the corner links and one 1 metre dowel, but the other 2 metre dowel didn’t arrive until Monday 18th May. I went away for the weekend so I couldn’t have put it together anyway, but I would have preferred if the whole lot had been delivered altogether just for peace of mind!

 

The kit I ordered is called the Children’s Link-A-Bord kit and it costs £29.95 but I used a 10% discount code so I got it cheaper. I chose this kit because it measures 1 metre wide x 0.5 metre deep, so it fits really well in the space we have on the patio. Harrod Horticultural also sell a kit which is exactly the same size as the one I bought (product code GDN-749), but they are charging £30.40 for it, so I saved a few pennies getting the Children’s one!

I was going to buy my kit directly from www.linkabord.co.uk but they don’t have this sized kit, although you can order parts separately but that worked out more expensive.

 

Anyway, as you can see from the photo I’ve managed to put it together. The boards and the corner links fitted together quite easily, but I had a bit of trouble getting the dowels through the holes as this kit is 2 raised beds stacked on top of each other. I cut the dowels with a hacksaw which was easy and I left them longer than the depth of the bed as I thought I might need to tie things onto them, like a cover or net.

 

The seedlings need to acclimatise for a week before I plant them outside permanently, so I’ll leave them in the empty bed during the day and bring them in at night. The weather is really unsettled at the moment and it’s very windy, so the bed is offering some protection.

As the bed has no base, when I put the soil in I will be putting it directly onto the patio as it’s just concrete. I did check with the Link-a-Bord customer services and they said this was fine to do. Obviously I’ll put some broken crocks at the bottom for drainage and I’ve got 2 bags of multi-purpose compost at 40 litres each, so that should fill it up. I’m still debating about whether to buy some Miracle-Gro Fruit and Vegetable Feed to mix in with the compost before I put my plants in. There’s probably enough nutrients in the compost, so I’ll probably just put some feed on once the fruits appear on the plants.

 

MARCH 22ND:

 

The plants have been outside during the day and brought in at night all week, getting ready to be planted in the raised bed permanently.

 

1. I bought some copper tape to deter the slugs from B&Q. It cost £4.98 for 4 metres so I had plenty to go all the way around. Apparently copper gives slugs and snails a little electric shock, so they steer clear of it. I wanted to use this instead of slug pellets as I’m growing veggies and want to keep it as free from chemicals as possible. It was really easy to use as you just peel off the backing paper and stick on the copper layer. It’s very thin and it’s a bit like that gold leaf that you put on poncey cakes/desserts!
2. I chucked in some crocks for drainage, it was a total guess if this would be enough! I used a pot that had been smashed by the bloke who lives across the road, as he lost control of his car and drove straight into the pot which was on the front doorstep! Lucky he didn’t go through the front door! Idiot!
3. I really thought 2 bags of 40 litre compost would be enough to fill the bed! Oh how wrong I was! Photo 3 shows the bed after I’d put only 1 bag of compost in – not even half full!
4. So I did a quick search on Google and read that the bed should be filled a couple of inches from the top. I also read a mixture of compost and soil would be OK so I went around the garden and collected about 6-7 buckets of soil. It had loads of stones and other stuff like dead leaves, but I guessed this would be good for drainage and possibly nutrients (I’m such an amateur!). So I mixed the soil in with the other bag of compost and managed to fill the bed up just over half full.

If I’d used my brain I would have easily realised that 2 bags of compost wasn’t enough! If I’d stacked the bags on top of each other inside the empty bed then I would have seen how much of the bed they would have filled. So I think you need at least 5 bags of compost (40 litres) to fill the bed, which could work out quite expensive!

 

I bought a 1kg bag of Slow Release Plant Food from Wilkinsons, so I put in about a quarter of the bag and mixed it into the soil and compost.

 

So I’ll be planting my seedlings out over the weekend, which will hopefully make them happier as they’re looking a bit droopy right now!

JUNE 1ST:

Steve’s Mum kindly let me use a bag of compost she’d bought, so the raised bed is a bit fuller now. I’d watered the soil/compost the day before, so I thought it would be OK to plant everything today.

 

As you can see from the lovely photo I took (and decorated in Photoshop, isn’t it colourful!) I’ve tried to space things out so the plants have room to grow.

 

I grew almost everything from seed in peat pots, but I took almost all the seedlings out of the peat pots as I planted them in the bed to give the roots more freedom. The butternut squash were planted still in their peat pots as their roots had grown right through the peat pots.

 

• TOMATOES: I read they needed to be 45cm apart, but I’ve also bought a grow bag and I just used the same spacing as marked out on the grow bag. So I’ve put 3 plants at the back of the bed and I’ll put 3 more in the grow bag.
• BASIL: I read the tomatoes like to be grown near basil as it improves the flavour, so I’ve planted some in between each tomato plant.
• BUTTERNUT SQUASH: These needed to be 100cm apart, but as my bed is only 100cm long I decided I’d try and put one plant at each end and hope for the best! They apparently grow quite big so I’ve left quite a bit of space around them, but I’m hoping they won’t take over the whole bed. I’ve also planted another plant in a big pot 11 inches in diameter.
• BEETROOT: These needed to be about 2cm apart, so I planted the 6 seedlings in 2 short rows. I didn’t plant them very deep, only about 2.5cm.
• CARROTS: I sprinkled the seeds straight into a 1cm deep trench and covered lightly with compost, then watered. Hopefully these will sprout!
• ONIONS: Steve’s sister gave me some onion sets as she had loads leftover, so I’ve planted 3 in a row as they need to be about 10cm apart.
• LETTUCE: The lettuce has been growing but it’s never looked healthy and I’m really hoping it will do better in the bed. I’ve also put some in a deeper pot as I think the ice cream tub I sowed the seeds in was too shallow.
• PEPPER: When I went to Wilkinson’s I couldn’t resist buying a Pepper plant as it was reduced to 75p! It was already quite established so hopefully it will bear some lovely peppers.

As you can see from the above photo, I’ve put some green plastic things (they came with some plants Steve’s mum bought)over the plants to protect them from cats and squirrels. I’m also hoping I can train the butternut squash to grow around them in a circle. I’ve also used an empty plastic tray to cover some of the beetroots that weren’t growing too well.

 

 

 

Something dug a big hole where my carrots were! We suspect it was a squirrel as they’re always digging things up in the garden and I saw one nearby when I found the hole – pesky thing! So I’ve put chicken wire over the plants to protect them as that seems quite effective. You can buy something similar from Harrod Horticultural called Rabbit Wire.

 

This is the cover I made from a Medium Plant Fleece Jacket, which I’d bought from Harrod Horticultural last Winter. I just cut it so that it was one flat piece of fabric. As it was a drawstring bag I just put a cane through where the string had been on both ends and then staked each cane at opposite ends of the bed. I pull the cover down when it’s too hot and I don’t want the plants to get too much sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the progress of all my plants on these pages:

• Herbs
• Butternut Squash and Pollinating Squash by Hand
• Tomatoes
• Basil
• Beetroot
• Carrots
• Onions
• Lettuce
• Peppers
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Chilies
• Chives
• Parsley

Grow your own Lettuce 2009

• PLANT: ‘Lollo Rossa’ Lettuce – ‘cut and come again’ type
• PLANTED IN COMPOST: 29 April
• PLANTED OUTSIDE: 22 May
• LIKES: Being kept moist and not too hot
• WATER: in the morning or midday to reduce risk of disease
• THIN OUT: packet says to 23cm (9in) apart, but I disagree!
• USEFUL VIDEO: http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/salad-leaves-seeds-grow/

 

I’ve gone from ‘not wanting to plant anything this year’ to ‘planting anything I can get my hands on!’ This might sound sad but I do get a bit of a buzz from actually making something grow from a little seed!

 

So I’ve been well and truly bitten by the gardening bug and I’ve ordered a raised bed kit from Harrod Horticultural. It’s made by Link-A-Bord and it basically just clicks together – more info once I actually get it and put it together!

 

I’ve got loads of seeds I need to germinate first though, which I got from the BBC website as they were giving away packs of free vegetable seeds. They’re meant to be for kids to encourage them to get into gardening as part of their Dig In campaign, but I couldn’t resist getting some for myself!

 

They’ve run out of packs now, so I was lucky to get the seeds and what’s even better is they’ve sent me everything I like to eat! I got seeds for butternut squash, carrots, beetroot, lettuce and tomatoes.

 

As I’m already growing tomatoes, I decided to try the Lollo Rossa lettuce first as I’ve heard it’s really easy to grow. I planted the seeds in an empty ice cream tub, which I first filled with some crocks and multi-purpose compost. Then I just sprinkled some seeds on top, lightly covered with compost and gave them some water. I covered them with cling film that had some holes punched in it to increase humidity and placed on a sunny windowsill.

I planted on 29 April and after only a few days the seeds sprouted!

The photo below was taken on 4 May:

The instructions said to thin the seedlings out, so I pulled out the weaker plants. The plants should be a spade-width apart, but I’ll have to wait until I’ve got my raised bed before I can do this. I couldn’t believe how much they grew in one day.

The photo below was taken on 5 May:

The photo below was taken on 8 May:

The lettuce is coming on a treat and as I still haven’t got my raised bed yet I decided to thin out the lettuce even more by putting some of the seedlings into peat pots. This should give the rest in the ice cream tub more room!

 

 

 

 

The photo below was taken on 10 May:

Well the lettuce didn’t seem to appreciate being move about and I think I’ve killed all the seedlings! I put all my plants outside to get some decent sunshine, hoping that they would perk up but they’re still in a very sad state! I’ve sown some more and if they sprout then I’ll definitely just leave them alone and not bother thinning them out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo below was taken on 18 May:

Lots of the new seeds I sowed have sprouted and I haven’t thinned them out but just left them alone to grow. Some of the older seedlings actually did perk up and are growing quite well now.

 

 

 

The photos below were taken on 22 May:

Well the lettuce leaves are starting to change colour and are going from green to purply-red, which is a good sign. None of them want to stand up straight though! So I’m hoping the big move to the raised bed and a deeper pot will improve their posture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo below was taken on 1 June:

The lettuce seedlings that I moved to the raised bed did grow bigger, but they were still very floppy. So I sowed lots more seeds directly into the bed to see if they would grow stronger. As you can see they have all sprouted! Then I read that I should thin them to 9 inches apart! That’s going to be a bit tricky since there are so many new seedlings and I don’t actually have that much space in the raised bed for them, so I’ll have to thin them as best I can!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photos below were taken on 13 June:

I did thin the lettuce out a little bit by pulling out the odd seedling, but really I’ve just left it to its own devices and it’s just grown and grown! I’ll start cutting it and eating it this week, hopefully it’ll taste good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo below was taken on 19 June:

Today I picked my first lot of lettuce and had it in a roll with some ham. Quite a momentous day for me as a kitchen gardener as it’s my first taste of what I’ve grown this year (the first few red strawberries don’t really count as the plant was from last year!).

I’d been worried using water from the water butt would somehow taint the flavour, but the lettuce tasted fine. Actually it didn’t really taste of much! But then I don’t recall Lollo Rossa from the supermarket having much flavour anyway. So this will probably be my last blog post on the lettuce!

 

I’ve concluded that the best way to grow lettuce is to sow it straight into the raised bed/pot as they really don’t like being transplanted/moved. They grow much stronger, rather than all spindly. Thinning out seems to be totally unnecessary as the leaves grow just fine being close together.