Lettuce Harvest

The two varieties of lettuce that I'm growing that were found to do best in warmer temperatures have proven to do very well. Both the Pirat and Nevada have resisted bolting so far.  The Pirat is now at its limit for heat tolerance, while the Nevada, which happened to be partly shaded by its neighboring plant is showing no signs of bolting. 

Summer Harvest

Tonight's Salad

Lettuce & Arugula

Yesterday Ignacio and I sowed lettuce and arugula to put out into the cold frame. 

Lettuce, Cilantro and Arugula

Last night I finished sowing lettuce, cilantro and arugula into the raised beds. In doing so realized that my lettuce seed supply is running low, and I am missing a few varieties that I would like to grow, such as a butter crunch type.

A fellow gardener, Jody Torpey over at Vegetable Gardener, posted about a study done on different types of lettuce that I found very interesting, and plan on testing some of the varieties myself.

Planting Bolt Resistant Lettuce

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I planted a large container of lettuce leaf 'Salad Bowl Blend' (from Botanical Interests) in spring. The seed packet did say it was one of the most heat tolerant and bolt resistant leaf lettuces available, but I didn't expect that I'd still be using the tender leaves in my summer salads. Talk about cut and come again!I've heard about gardeners being able to grow lettuce all summer, and now I guess I'm one of them.

Granted, not every garden is going to have the same conditions for lettuce growing as I've had this summer. The weather in Denver has had its ups and downs all season. Days of 90 to 100 degrees have been followed by milder weather. 

However, lettuce growers in other parts of our region may benefit from the results of a 2004 Colorado State University study. Students in the Horticulture and Landscape Architecture group conducted The Lettuce Bolting Resistance Project and the results are really interesting. 

The project studied 50 different lettuce varieties that were planted every two weeks from June to September. The students prepared the fields and used organic methods to maintain the lettuce.

The weather during the project was unusually hot and dry with 26 days above 90 degrees. In addition, there was some insect damage to crops.

The research showed that Batavian lettuce varieties resisted bolting the best. These varieties didn't bolt all season, even during the warmest weather. They could also be harvested at different stages during the growing season.

Nevada, Sierra and Tahoe were the standout cultivars.

The Butter varieties were the second-best lettuce group to hold reasonably well against bolting.

Red Romaine lettuces were found to be good for individual leaf harvest and baby lettuce production.

Perhaps you'll want to conduct your own research to see which of these lettuce varieties resist bolting in your garden. There's still plenty of time for planting this season.

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Fall and Winter Vegetables

Today we transplanted the kale, arugula, rougue di'hiver lettuce, carrots and spinach into the raised beds. We then also sowed some mâché and mizuna into the raised beds. I never truly have had a successful fall/winter garden, I'm hoping that changes this year. 

We also harvested some tomatos, okra and jalapeños.

Fall Lettuce & Cilantro

We've started sowing seeds for our fall garden. So far its oakleaf lettuce,  leaf mix lettuce and cilantro. Hopefully I'll start some snap peas soon. The entire time I was in the garden I had a little inquisitive friend following me along.

Square Foot Raised Bed

Last weekend Antonio and I built the frame of our raised bed, and mixed and then filled the bed. Our mix was from the Square Foot Gardening Book, which is 4 cubic feet of peat moss, 4 cubic feet of mixed compost, and 4 cubic feed of vermiculite. The vermiculite was the hardest to find, it took me a while to finally find it. Luckily my local nursery (Woody's Nursery)  got some in stock the day I had decided to finally build the raised bed. The hardest part was mixing the ingredients, they got quite heavy, and Antonio was only able to help so much.

This weekend I finally transplanted the brocolli and cabbage that had been growing under my light shelves, and sowed more cilantro, lettuce, spinach, radishes and carrots. So the Spring Raised bed is done, and everything will grow well, and be ready to harvest before the summer plants need to go in. You can see more information about the plants that I have in our Square Foot Raised Bed by following its link to MyFolia website.

Harvesting Lettuce

This Monday night we harvested 2.1 ounces of our organic lettuce. That was enough for all three of us to make salads using only homegrown lettuce. Up to now we had been adding our homegrown lettuce to our store-bought lettuce. It was definitely a nice feeling to be eating something that we knew came about by the efforts of our labor.

Snap Pea, Lolla Rosa Lettuce, and Sparkling White Tip Radish

I did one last sowing of Snap Peas directly into the garden, and sowed Lolla Rosa Lettuce and some more Sparkling White Tip Radishes along with it. Hopefully it is not already too warm for the peas. Hopefully they still have enough time to produce some tasty peas. I also went ahead and sowed indoors 4 cilantro, to try to get them started.

Lettuce and Pansies

Yesterday Antonio and I planted some pansies and some lettuce seeds into a container. Antonio was the one who put all the potting soil into the container while I prepped the plants and added the amendments to the soil. I couldn't ask for a better garden helper.

Snap Pea, Lettuce, Spinach, Chives (garlic & regular), Radishes & Carrots

Today I sowed some more snap pea, spinach, radishes and carrots. I also sowed some lettuce, chives (regular and garlic) and garlic. It was a gorgeous day at about 74, can't believe that it was snowing six days ago.