Salad Trays Part 2

The first tiny lettuce seedlings are emerging.  Yay!  The carrots and pak choy will take a few more days.

Pilch 92 commented "You kept it going a long time. Our lettuce bolted when it got really hot over the summer."   Yeah, they lasted from Spring.  I'm pretty sure that's because I cut a whole head an 1" above ground level each time, so the whole plant grows back, and that delays bolting.  

"Cut&come again" is a really great way to keep harvesting loose-leaf lettuce.  Since the plant has an established root system, it regrows leaves very quickly.  And I use an organic slow-release fertilizer at initial planting so the roots stay fed for months.  I don't think that would work for iceberg lettuce, but I don't grow that.

With 2 trays of green lettuce and 1 of red, and 12 plants per tray, I always have enough for the base of a salad (I add plenty of other raw veggies to fill a bowl).  

It doesn't look like this again yet...

But it will in about a month!  At which time I will have to bring them inside for Winter (under lights).  And I have LED light fixtures to install, so it won't cost much.

BTW, lettuce seeds cost only about $3 per packet and if you keep them in the fridge, they last several years.  The 2' trays are cheap enough.  Not that I've ever tried to keep track carefully, my best guesstimate is that I pay about 15 cents per pound of fresh clean lettuce.  $2 per pound at the grocery store.

The celery and pak choy is harder to guess and the savings.  I just get leaves of both.  Which is all I want from them.  Celery leaves are tasty and a bit spicy.  Pak choy leaves are just for my shrimp rolls but the leafiest ones at the store are "baby" and cost $5 per pound.  

But mostly, I love just being able to walk out on the deck at dinnertime and harvest fresh stuff easy and cheap!

Flowers, Part 2

 And then there are deck flowers.  I haven't planted the pots with the new ones yet, but there are perennials.

The Oriental Lilies exploded the past few days.  From nothing...

To a few...

And more!

It will spectacular in a couple days.

And there is a volunteer in one deck pot from last year!  I will give it special attention!

And the lettuce/celery/pak choi trays are doing well outside now.  

I sure love Spring...

The Deck Garden

I've shown pics of my deck garden in the past.  I grow various lettuces, celery, and pak choy.  Most of them are "cut and come again".  But eventually, they wear out and die, so I have to plant again.

So I planted all again a few weeks ago.  They are doing great.  They grow fast in warm weather and don't mind cool temperatures when they are mature.  I will have to take them inside (under lights when the first hard frost is predicted) but the current Weather Channel forecast says that will be a couple more weeks.

The late "first hard freeze" is amazing.  It used to be in late October, but in the past decade it has gotten later by 2 weeks on average.  And this year will be a week later than average.  My trees and shrubs are finding the change difficult to adjust to (my newer plantings are from what was a zone further south years ago).

But my deck garden loves it.  They don't know the date of course and have no knowledge of previous years; all they know is that the temperature suits them.  They are growing quickly.

The lettuces et al were like this 2 weeks ago...

Now they are this:

The celery doesn't make true stalks here. but it is the stronger-tasting leaves I like anyway.

The lettuces are thriving.

The pak choy leaves are for wrapping contents in my Spring Rolls.  The leaves add some flavor, but mostly the prevent the contents from poking holes in the wrapper.

I am looking forward to a new batch of "cut and come again".