Growing Your Own Organic Lettuce
July 15, 2009 by Karlynn Johnston
Filed under Featured, Super Natural
We have been enjoying the fruit, or perhaps I should say the salad, of our labors for a few days now. Last year I had attempted to grow strawberries in my garden planters, and for some reason they were never happy enough with me to produce a lot of berries. The soil in these pots was certified organic, so there was no way I was just going to throw it into my flowerbeds and be done with it.
This spring I brought the containers out from under the deck where they had wintered and perused what to do with them. Its not that the organic soil was that much more expensive, or is so incredibly precious, but once you know what is in your soil, as a gardener, you like to keep it that way.
I purchased some lettuce seeds, thinking of our rabbit, and threw them into the container. These seeds were “stuck” onto little white circles of tissue paper, so I ripped them in half, and planted 4 of them between two planters, three in one, and one to share with my pepper plant. The tissue paper helped them not to be washed to the sides of the container every time I watered them before they rooted well, and they DO need a lot of water so you have excellent, juicy lettuces.
As you can see from the pictures, my lettuce has flourished, and we have been eating the leaves from the middle one, which is slightly diminished in size. And I am going to admit, that our rabbit hasn’t seen once darn leaf of this lettuce. When I check out the prices of organic lettuce in the stores, I realize that perhaps we will be keeping it for the humans in our family instead. I wouldn’t say she’s too hard done by, she’s enjoying a bumper crop of dandelion leaves this year that the kids and I pick for her daily.
This is definitely something that even an apartment gardener can do on a patio that received ample sunlight. The containers are not an expensive initial investment, nor is the soil and seeds. I would guess that the initial cost of $15 for your setup is lower the price of organic lettuce at your nearest store as well, and the following year, your only cost is the seeds. Its also hard to find a vegetable that truly flourishes in small pots, so I will be keeping these as my lettuce containers from now on.
Related posts:
