I guess it's "Garden Week" here at Old Town Home, as our saga of the backyard transformation continues. Yesterday we covered our little urban square foot garden turned informal veggie/fruit/herb planting area and our process of cleaning up our yard for the year.
One of the keys to this year's garden is the understanding and experience of previous years to know what likely will and will not work when planted in the space. Unfortunately, our location, space, and surrounding vegetation place limitations on what we can plant. For example, regardless of how much Alex may want honeydew melon, there's no reasonable way it's going to grow in our garden. Instead it will likely wilt and die when the temperature gets hot.
The main bummer about these limitations is the fact that lettuce just doesn't seem to grow for us. I think it's a combination of lack of sunlight, as well as the roots of the tree and ivy restricting the lettuce from really taking hold. The past two years the lettuce in the garden has started to grow early, then wilts and disappears as we head towards June. I know the lettuce also doesn't like the heat, so that compounds the problem as well.
This year, rather than trying to force the lettuce to grow somewhere that it won't work, I've opted to plant the various types of lettuce I want in a few containers so that I'm able to create a little lettuce container garden in our backyard.
This way the lettuce won't be choked out by the other roots, can be moved based on the sun (maximizing the sun's effect), and can have its own dedicated and deeper dirt with plenty of water.
I planted several different types of lettuce in two primary large planters. The list of lettuces I hope to be enjoying at the dinner table in a few weeks is:
- Romaine Lettuce
- Radicchio
- Rainbow Chard
To prepare the pots for our lettuce I emptied them of their old plantings. These previously housed many of our herbs, so the soil was in decent shape and just needed to me freed up a bit.
I then topped off each planter with a little extra organic soil to make sure the lettuce has a sufficient and maximum amount of soil to take hold in.
Much like our vegetable garden, I made holes in the dirt for the lettuces and planted them slightly lower than the surrounding dirt, making a bit of a dish around the base of the plant's stem to collect water.
After just a few minutes I was the proud owner of a couple nice little lettuce container gardens.
While I was at it I also planted a few other herbs in other containers in the yard. This year, once again, we have many of our favorites:
- Oregano
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Parsley
- Cilantro
- Mint
I was also really excited to finally be able to enjoy one of my favorite Christmas gifts from 2012. These sweet ceramic herb markers, made by a local artist in Ohio, were a gift from my Aunt Margie (known to our readers as the master behind Chess Noels) and Uncle Jim. Seriously, does it get any cuter than a polka dot ceramic tag with copper stand? I think not.
Though I was largely planting herbs and veggies, I also made time for a few pretty little plants that add a little happiness to our yard, like these little purple flowers, left over from our urns out front.
We also have several items from last year that are returning very nicely, such as this large hydrangea that will look beautiful in just a few weeks.
In all, I consider this year's garden to be a preliminary success. We'll see how it goes with the bugs, squirrels, and other pests, but I'm cautiously optimistic for what the year will bring. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to share our lettuce bounty with our favorite lettuce hound, Lulu.
Have you ever planted a container garden with lettuce? If so, what were your results and experiences? Any tips on how I can help maximize the output?
