i had planted tomato plants, cilantro, parsley, and what not, but that tends to be a bit boring if you take in the landscape of the yard. and the tomato plants can be really an ugly sight (not so beautiful leaves, hairy stems...ucky). so i bought this mesclun mix really only to pretty up the garden. but it's taken a liking to my garden and is flourishing (to see it from at the beginning click here). so, now what do i do? i don't really know anything about growing lettuce. do i dig the entire head up to harvest? trim back leaves? pick here and there? i do like salad (i just made up a killer lemon dill salad dressing last night), but i don't want to remove the entire heads, i like them for ornamental purposes. hmmmmm.....lesson learned: next year...plant mesclun to eat, and stick to edible flowers to pretty up the herb/vegetable garden....
5 comments:
Two things:
1: Next time give yourself some flat space and sprinkle the whole package of seeds all over that space. The seedlings will choke out most of the weeds. You probably have plenty of time for another two or three plantings if the spot is out of direct sun.
2: Take the largest leaves off with scissors opf the plants you have now and eat them. The plants will keep putting out leaves until they bolt.
If you do a mass planting, you can just give the patch a haircut whenever you want lettuce and you can probably get three or four cuttings in a couple weeks.
i think next year i may have to add raised beds from behind the garage. i'm having so much fun but worrying my garden is going to get overcrowded. i am going to try to collect seeds this year, with the help of my sister in law, and hopefully i can have a whole bed of lettuce. can you believe these lettuces are in FULL sun?
compared to what you pay for lettuce in the store, lettuce seeds are dirt cheap. My lettuce is in a 4x6 bed and I stagger the plantings by about 3 weeks. While one half of the bed is sprouting, I'm getting lettuce out of the other half for weeks at a time.
i think i will do that this year too. i just don't know where else to plant the seeds.
Hi there,
Looks like my gardening pal Steven beat me over here. He said pretty much exactly what I would have. I direct seeded a 4'x 8' raised bed this year and enjoyed huge salads every day for over a month. Seeding thickly ensured a practically weed-free lettuce patch. Now I'm experimenting and letting the whole thing go to seed for a fall crop. Not sure if you saw this article on my blog or not--you might pick up some more tips. Click here. Congrats on your mesclun success! : )
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