I have to confess I am so ready for “lettuce season” to be over.
Don’t get me wrong, I love lettuce. I really do.
Last year, I made the critical mistake of planting everything at once. I also didn’t know that you can harvest lettuce and spinach as it grows. We ended up with so much lettuce that we were able to give lettuce to nearly every attendee at a cousins’ graduation party.
The “pick as you go” knowledge has resulted in enough lettuce to keep the two of us eating pretty good sized salads nearly every day for the last couple of months. Enough I say. One can only come up with so many appealing and healthy combinations that travel well for lunch.
I can’t say I was sorry to pull the bolted (read: bitter) spinach out yesterday to make room for the green beans I planted right next door.
The lettuce is still going strong though and it probably will for at least another week even with the 80+ degree temperatures we’re expecting.
I am pretty sure in a few weeks I’ll be lamenting the loss of my tender lettuce and will be pining for the last days of summer when I can get another round in before winter.
For now though, bring on the summer vegetables!
Filed under: Summer 2009, Uncategorized, UnSnobbery, Urban Garden | Tags: Cleveland, food politics, lessons learned, urban gardening
There are hundreds of people blogging about the wonder that is growing their own food in areas of the country that haven’t seen a whole lot of formal food production since the legendary “victory garden”.
Don’t hold me to the numbers, but I think I remember hearing something like 40% of US food production during World War II was grown by ordinary citizens. Regardless of whether that’s a real number or not, the fact that every day people were able to grow their own food and have a connection to the miracle of seed to harvest is inspiring.
Rationing has never been my reality – if you count government imposed because we have to feed the boys overseas. As a vegetarian; however, the cost of fresh, quality, locally grown, organic produce is a completely unsustainable part of my budget and I wanted to change that. Therefore, the “rationing” comes in a much more hidden form – lower prices in exchange for wasted energy, chemical runoff into our drinking water, worker abuse and nutritional deficiencies in the end product are just a few on a very long list.
In short, I’m hooked on fruits and vegetables – the more “responsible” the better. And it’s a lot of fun to grow your own, really.
So back to what I call my “victory garden”. Why did I even start this blog when everyone else is too?
Actually, because someone was rude to me at the “local organic garden store” when I went to buy some already started lima bean plants.
You see, furry creatures kept digging mine up and I was concerned that didn’t have time to grow more and still get a full harvest in because they take so long to mature.
I’ll figure something out for next year and chalk it up to lessons learned – but I came away with the sense that there’s got to be some friendly advice out there for people just getting started.
And with that -
Welcome to my Nearly Urban Garden(s) in my inner-ring suburb neighborhood near the fine city of Cleveland Ohio (without sarcasm).
I hope to share what I’ve learned and what I learn as I go – nicely and in a way that makes sense and is actually useful. I hope to get advice from people who know more than me (which is pretty easy).
I’ll give you lesson #1 as learned from my hastily planted garden last year -
Pay attention when the seed packets tell you how much space to give for each plant. Did I learn? Mostly, but I am certainly enjoying my mess of peas.
