Dear Gardeners,
A couple of interesting items from
West Coast Seeds newsletter that just came in today:
April in the GardenApril is the month to direct sow beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, collards, endive, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsnips, peas, radishes, scallions, spinach, Swiss chard and turnips.
Indoors, you want to get your cauliflower, celery, and eggplants started, and there is still time to start peppers and tomatoes indoors, but sooner is better than later.
And the topic of the season: Starting Easy to Grow Lettuce.
Lettuce tips:
April is the time to direct sow lettuce seeds. These cool-loving plants will grow fairly rapidly, regardless of the variety, and thrive in spring weather. For a continuous harvest, try to stagger your plantings so that a new row gets planted every 2-3 weeks. This will produce plants that mature over a longer period in early summer for a steady supply of greens.
Just about all lettuce varieties are annual plants, and when the days are long and warm in summer, they will "bolt." This is when their vegetative growth is finished, and the plants are driven to send up tall flower spikes, bloom, and then produce seeds. When the ground is warm in mid-summer, lettuce seeds do not germinate well. Once the plants bolt, the leaves become tougher and bitter - not good for eating - so timing your lettuce harvests before and after mid-summer is wise.
Stubborn growers (a wonderful and inspiring bunch of people, by the way) have devised a few methods to delay bolting and improve germination in warm summer weather. Bolting can be delayed (not prevented) by erecting shade cloths near the rows, so the plants and the soil they're growing in stay a bit cooler. This can add 1-2 weeks of summer harvesting. Summer lettuce seeds can also be started indoors, in the coolest part of the house. One other trick is to place the seeds on a damp paper towel, and place this inside of a zip-lock bag in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days. The seeds will germinate, but the seedlings must be delicately placed into soil for growing out. Tweezers come in handy with this method.
Lettuce may be the ideal vegetable for gardeners who lack full sun. It will grow well in partial shade or in dappled light because the plant only wants to produce leaves. This may also delay bolting. Lettuce has relatively shallow roots, so it's quite well suited for containers. Just provide ample drainage and ample water, and you should be able to grow full heads of lettuce on the smallest patio.
Because of its preference for cool weather, combined with its ability to grow under less direct sunlight than other vegetables, lettuce does very well in winter if you can provide some protection from the elements. Raised garden beds work particularly well for winter lettuce because of the added drainage and generally warmer soil. Cloche protection over a growing row can keep lettuce in fine form all winter long.
One final tip that we like to recommend is to start lettuces indoors, whenever possible, in seed planting flats. The 128-hole flats work particularly well, even if you're not filling them up. By planting one seed per cell of these flats, you'll know exactly how many plants you've got - lettuce transplants very easily, so you can shift the tiny plants into the row with precise spacing, rather than seeding the row and then thinning. In the long run, despite the extra work of caring for the seedlings, this ends up being quite economical.
---------------end lettuce tips.
Also from the Westcoast Seeds Newsletter:
Male and then
Female Mason Bees emerge (photos).
Best, Jen.
