Growing lettuce in small spaces

[Horse with no Name]

Saw this on the Today Show this morning and it was a great idea to grow your own lettuce in small spaces.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/17645910/
>>>snip
If you've never grown lettuce before here's a simple idea: Punch about six or so holes into the bottom of a galvanized metal tub or large pail (these are inexpensive and can be purchased at most home improvement stores). Fill the tub with potting soil and sow lettuce seeds and care for them according to package directions. In no time your family will be dining on gourmet salads nightly. I also appreciate that more and more nurseries and garden centers are carrying a wider selection of lettuce varieties in cell packs which makes planting a snap. Talk about your instant vegetable garden: You just pop them out, plant and go.

[wakeme2008]

1. You may want to stage the seeds over a period of time so the

lettuce does not all come ripe at the same time.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. There are several mixes available in stores and through seed

catalogs that will grow back after they are cut if you leave an inch or two of the plant above the crown. It takes a couple of weeks, but you can get successive cuttings from the same plants. Some also recommend just harvesting the outer leaves of the plant when you pick and it will keep growing. They will eventually succumb to the heat, but you can extend your harvest that way.

[alfredo]

2. I've been container gardening for a long time. I grow lettuce, and once

they are mature I plant Chard. When the lettuce is past its prime the chard is well on its way to being ready to eat. I also grow peppers and tomatoes in pots.

Look into Square Foot Gardening. He has a good method for small space gardening.

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

[NJCher]

4. don't know about the south, but we can grow lettuce all summer

Here's how you do it: when the hot weather rolls around, put up shades over the lettuce patch. Put four stakes around your patch and affix the cloth shade.

Here in Jersey, it can easily get in the 90s on up to 100 in late July and August. The high heat and humidity in those months is one reason tomatoes grow so well and that we're known as "the garden state."

I've been growing lettuce using this method for the last couple years. I learned about it from a nursery owner who does it himself.

Prior to this, I'd always given up on summer lettuce crops because I could never get the seeds to grow. The nurseryman told me it is because the intensity of the sun kills the seedlings before they get established.



Cher

[alfredo]

6. That's a good idea. Thanks

[MissB]

5. I love square foot gardening.

I have to reset my garden this year, since my free range chickens are free ranging right on through my garden. But Mel's methods have served me well over the years.

[alfredo]

7. I was able to push the season by making tents that fit the frame.

It worked well.

Remember the wacky wall walkers? The looked like bright colored octopus/spiders. I had problems with a cat that got into my garden and used it for his cat box. I found that he was afraid of wacky wall walkers so I put several in my garden. Problem solved.




they were sticky and if you threw them up against a mirror or smooth wall, they would tumble/walk down the wall.