Picking Iceberg Lettuce Leaves for the First Time This Season

I finally just started picking my lettuce leaves today and I was able to collect quite a few for the first harvest of 2016.  In total I got 70 leaves from only my iceberg lettuce and my Ruby glow hybrid are not ready yet and I will begin picking those leaves or the whole plant within a couple of weeks or so depending on weather conditions. 

Since it rained yesterday some of the leaves got some dirt on them which is nothing to fret about because I usually wash all the leaves I pick.  Soaking them in water is a good way to remove all the dirt from the leaves if you have never picked lettuce leaves before.

I also decided on taking some pictures of one of my plants just before I started picking leaves from it.  I wanted to see the difference between before harvesting and just after harvesting them.

The plants still look good and I wouldn't be surprised if I get plenty of more harvests from these plants.  I also am looking forward to picking some of my Ruby glow hybrid leaves.  I didn't get to pick them last year and was hoping to pick them this season and see how good they taste compared to iceberg or green lettuce.

The Latest Progress of my Fruit and Vegetable Plants

I didn't want to write a long post and bore you to death, but instead I am going to give a small update on how some of my plants have been doing.  This month will start the garden season with tilling the entire garden, planting seeds of corn, beans and more, and transplanting many plants.  After May I should have everything that I need in the garden.  This includes some seeds that will be planted directly into the garden.

Most of my plants are doing well and I have given updates previously on onions, spinach, and many flowers.  Today I want to share with you all my other plants such as cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, lettuce, and more.  The pictures below are of plants that I have not given an update on this year.

My lettuce plants this season were not doing well outside and it might have been due to the weather.  I didn't think that they would come back at all, but they are now doing very good and I should be placing them outside before I till the entire garden.  As you know I grow both iceberg and the ruby glow hybrid lettuce.

Here are my tomatoes that were one of the first fruits that I started indoors.  They do take some time to grow indoors especially if there is limited amount of sunlight.  These are perfect plants to be grown in greenhouses.  Despite not having a greenhouse they are thriving.

I planted both zucchini and pumpkins which are both squash plants and that is what is pictured below.  Within a couple of weeks this plant is already thriving with several leaves.  I love how fast that these plants grow and how easy it is to care for them.  I hope to place them outside real soon.

The last one I want to show you are my cucumber plants.  They might not look exactly how they should, but once I get some good weather and harden them off I am sure that they will look healthy and vibrant.

Getting Most of My Flowers Outside for Fresh Air

Yesterday the weather was very good and it was in the low 70's for most of the day and it was a good chance to place many of my plants outside.  For now I am just going to be putting flowers outdoors to get used to the weather.  I will be placing all my others outside maybe in a week or at the end of this coming week.

I want to get my flowers used to the weather as soon as possible in order to place them in the ground very soon.  This is what I do every season and it has definitely worked to my advantage.  Placing them outside not just helps the plants, but it also helps in possibly attracting good insects during the daytime and laying eggs on plant leaves.

I am getting blooming buds on many of my alyssum plants and these are always the first to boom.  Once they start flowering then I know it is almost time to get them into the ground, but for now I will just be placing them outside each day and bring them inside for the night.

Most of the other flowers will be flowering once I place them in the garden, but right now they are just growing as best as possible with the good weather that we are having.  Some perennial flowers are in the garden right now such as my feverfew, perennial alyssum, and even some cilantro has come back from last season.  These are usually annuals but I guess the seeds were preserved and they started growing in the garden once the weather was good enough.

I also have lettuce outside during the entire day and night.  They have been outside for the longest and I am going to be putting them in the garden hopefully sometime this week.  They look ready for the garden and I think once I get them in the ground they should start growing much better.

All my other plants such as eggplants, melons, peppers, and most of the fruits and vegetables will not be placed outside at the moment.  I will be waiting for higher temperatures outside.  Since they will not be planted any time soon I can keep them inside for now.

Spinach Placed Outside and Flowers Sprouting Indoors

Whenever warm weather or at least sunny days occur I like to place as many plants outside as possible depending on various conditions.  For instance right now it is almost springtime, yet this doesn't mean that the weather is going to get warmer right away.  It will still be too cool for most of my plants except for spinach which is capable of withstanding cooler temperatures at least in the lower 40's to upper 30's (Fahrenheit) at the lowest.

They grow best in the 50's to 60's (Fahrenheit), but I do place them outside when it is much cooler.  Since last week was warm and sunny it was a great opportunity to place my spinach outside to enjoy the bright sun.  This week it hasn't been sunny at all and mostly rainy.  This week they haven't gone outside, but I hope to put them outdoors soon to adjust to cloudy weather as well as rainy weather.

They are growing very nicely at the moment and I will soon be placing them outside and throughout the night once the temperature is acceptable to them.

Now I want to discuss the various seeds that have been sprouting this past week.  The sunny weather last week definitely helped out my lettuce plants indoors and they started sprouting this weekend.  Both of the Ruby glow hybrid and the iceberg black seeded Simpson are growing.  Check them out below.

It seems that I may have added too many seeds into each pot and I think I will be very busy removing the ones I don't need.  I didn't think that all the seeds would sprout and since they are very small seeds it is difficult to know how many I added.  That is why I always add more than needed because I can always remove some.  In this case I am going to remove quite a bit and it looks that I probably should have added only half or more of what was planted.

When it comes to flowers I am not that worried about having too much because I have found that most of them grow best when they are in a large bunch.  One plant that I especially like that is perfect for this reason is alyssum.  I can grow them in large pots and put a large amount of seeds and they will do just fine for a few month until I place them in the ground.  They flower all season long which is perfect for what I need them for.

Pictured above are alyssum, sunflowers, and dill.  Now that they have sprouted I can remove the dill from under the lights and place some new plants under them.  Right now I am not going to plant anything, but tomorrow I plan on adding tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers under these fluorescent lights.

Getting Lettuce Seeds into Small Peat Pots

This is going to be a short post because all I did was plant some lettuce seeds in some simple peat pots that I had from last season.  Right now the stores do not have gardening supplies yet and so I will be using some peat pots that I had saved from the previous year. 

My lettuce crop last season could have been much better and this year I want to make sure that I get the best harvest that I can grow.  I am mainly working on my Ruby glow hybrid this season because I didn't get as much last year.  As long as I don't have to deal with animals eating it I think I can do pretty good.  As long as I can get them into the ground while the weather is cool and not too warm I should be fine.

I am not putting them under lights either which is something I should probably think about doing, but for now the windowsill should provide the sunlight that they require.

Getting My Lettuce to the Kitchen Table

I was deciding on whether or not to begin picking my lettuce a week ago or to wait a little bit longer for larger leaves.  I think I made the right choice by picking them today and they look really good and I am looking forward to eating them.  I still have spinach left so I will have to finish up my spinach before I can start eating my iceberg lettuce.  No worry though because they will go fast and soon I will be enjoying the great taste of my organic lettuce.

I am really looking forward to picking my ruby glow hybrid which is what I grew this season as something different that I haven't grown before.  It is also a romaine type lettuce which is much more healthier and comes with an antioxidant which is why it is red in color compared to the traditional green iceberg lettuce.

Check out the large leaves that were removed from my plants today.

Two pounds in total was collected and 39 leaves.  I gave them a quick rinse and placed them in the refrigerator to keep them firm and crisp just the way I like them.  The ruby glow hybrid leaves are not quite ready and I am waiting for them to produce more leaves before picking them. 

Probably a good layer of mulch will help them out quite a bit.  I don't like to let the soil dry out too long otherwise they might bolt or go to seed prematurely.  Mulch can easily solve this probably especially when I use grass clippings.  This is the best type of mulch for keeping out weeds and retaining moisture.

Thriving Lettuce Now Transplanted To the Garden

I haven't been doing much in growing and instead have been watering my onions, spinach, and all my plants that I started indoors.  They have been doing great outside with the great weather I have been getting and now it is time to place them in the soil right away.  I would have liked to place them in the ground last week, but I still have time and decided on this week instead.

For now I have just worked on my lettuce plants.  I moved all my plants to the garden, but I have only placed my lettuce into the ground.  All the others will come in the next two days hopefully.  I am hoping that I can finish everything that I need by Wednesday at the latest.  I want to get them done by Tuesday, but I am not sure that I can finish it by then.

Black Seeded Simpson

Ruby Glow Hybrid