Weekly Garden Thread - April 9-15, 2022 [Lettuces & Salad Greens Edition]

April 9, 2022 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memorium

[Diana in Wisconsin]

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[Ellendra]

I’m hypersensitive to the bitterness that exists in most leafy vegetables. I keep trying, though. This year I’m testing a lettuce variety called “Merlot” that’s supposed to be completely bitter-free. It’s going around my tomato plants, along with beets and dwarf basil, so even if it doesn’t taste good enough to eat, it can at least help keep the weeds back.

If anyone else knows of a variety of greens that are 100% bitter-free, I would love to know.

[Pollard]

Baby rabbit is my best guess. Are slugs out in 30-40 degrees? Would slugs eat the tops of a three inch plant? Guess I can put some beer out there to see if it's slugs. Never been a problem here.

I saw a rabbit for the first time here last year and where there's one, there's apt to be two and where there's two, there will soon be many.

I did finally find my poultry netting and also have 16+ foot of 4 foot wide metal window screen.

My field fence is below.

I can see a young rabbit getting through that. The gate's no problem for rabbits as it's the 2x4 openings and it's tight between the posts. Lettuce hasn't been bothered and most everything else has been eaten. Still a few left but I have to start seeds again anyway so I'll wrap with poultry wire today, stick beer out tonight and see if I catch slugs. I'll go out when dark too and see what I can see. I'll take an inventory today and see what's what tomorrow.

Found the poultry wire right up near the house, three foot off the ground after looking out back on the ground expecting to find it buried in leaves. While I was out back, I found two half full 50lb feed bags with chicken manure and probably mixed with our silt soil. I dug it up from the original coop spot after I moved it. The sun ate through the feed bags so it's been rained/snowed on but is nice fine crumbly blackness. I just have no idea how strong it will be. Might be neutral by now. It's 4-5 years old. I'm going to transplant something into it and also try starting a few seeds of some sort into it and see what happens.

Take a couple of years off of gardening and you forget what you have and since I have no garden shed, forget where things are.

[Pollard]

I think a lot of them sweeten up after a touch of frost.

Then of course with some greens, cook with salty, fatty pork, spices and I’ve even seen recipes that have a little bit of sugar.

[metmom]

What I did for peas and beans was to use large tomato cages wrapped in chicken wire. I planted the snow peas inside those and they grew up inside and supported the plants, and the critters couldn’t get to them.

However, something did eat the tops off, and I think it was a woodchuck that climbed the wire and snacked on what it could reach.

Unfortunately, being in town, shooting the suckers wasn’t permitted.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Merlot is a lovely lettuce. How do you do with baby greens?

I’ve found that bitterness in lettuces usually happens when they get too big before the leaves or the entire head is harvested, or the top is OK, but the base needs to be cut off due to size. Whenever I see that white sap running out of the base of a Romaine when cut, I cut it a little higher up and compost or re-grow the nub.

How about Butterhead types? Those are extra mild - almost flavorless, IMHO. I like those for wraps instead of using bread or a tortilla.

I miss carbs. :( BUT I’m 8 pounds down, already. Yay! :)

[Qiviut]

We had 2 hunks of what looked like rabbit hair (more undercoat type) when I came out of the house the other day. One hunk was on the sidewalk & one nearby in the grass. We have foxes in the area - one turned on the porch motion light trotting across the sidewalk about 2-3 weeks ago - I actually saw it. I suspect a fox caught one of the rabbits that hang around under our bushes. We have hawks too, but this had to have happened overnight.

We didn’t have rabbits around for years, but they’re making a comeback. No problems in my garden thank goodness - the fencing I have does a good job keeping them out.

[Pollard]

Ok, we’re rabbit proof. Will set some beer out in a little while.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I was thinking it was probably a baby rabbit. Could be a cut worm, not sure if they are active yet, but I have lost the tops of some of my baby beets. It is probably early for the slugs and cutworms .

Your fencing (Same type as mine) stops the big ones but not the little ones. I had to double up and use 36” 1” opening chicken wire all around the bottom of the outside and if possible dig it in. Had to use 1”x 3” on the bottom in places too. (One year I lost 28 12 inch high broccoli plants to rabbits and that educated me about fencing!)

[metmom]

The fence the previous owners put up around the garden was bent at a right angle laying flat on the ground for about 8” out from the fence, so when the animals came to the fence and tried to dig under it, they would just hit the wire fence.

It seems to be pretty successful as I have not had much trouble.

My advantage is that the garden is in a fairly open area and we have lots of owls around and I have seen a few eagles overhead. There are also falcons and hawks around so I think that keeps the small varmint population down.

[metmom]

Mr mm and I just built a few nesting platforms for robins and other platform nesting birds.

They have been building nests under our eaves on stuff like light fixtures, so we figured we’d give them more appropriate housing.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Leftover lettuce and cabbage seedlings (front) and Tomato seedlings needing up potting!

Was 29 degrees this am. Warmed up to the 60s! Pulled off the tarps and unplugged the pipe wrap I put inside to keep it warm. (Or else I would have cooked the plants!) In this row I have re oriental vegetables (Chinese cabbage/mizuma/mustard/choi) and lettuce plugs that were planted 5 days ago. (stuff that will grow quickly!)

Golden Sweet peas and Swensons Swedish peas with support fencing. (I also put chicken wire fencing above the growing peas to prevent squirrels digging them up.)

Everything tucked back into their low tunnels. I'll pull them off again in a week or so. Garlic and potato onions are growing well! Definitely not Le Jardin du Roi or Versaille, but should help with food costs!

[MomwithHope]

We think romaine is not bitter as long as it does get too mature.

[Pollard]

No new damage and no drunken slugs

[Pollard]

(stuff that will grow quickly!)

I've got some Tokyo turnips aka hakurei going but they're F1 hybrids so I'm looking at Tokinashi Turnip for next year. The Tokyo turnips are ready in 30-45 days. About 30 days for 1" and 45 for 2" and the tops are edible too. Tokinashi are 50 days.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

No more Damage; Good deal!

Bunnies; Oh. everyone except gardeners find them all cuddly and cut, but we know the truth!

The only rabbits I want around are Chocolate rabbits! (Filled chocolate rabbits are ok too!)

[Pollard]

Started some new seeds yesterday to replace what the critter(s) ate but before I did, I cut up my 72 cell tray into 12 - 6 cell trays which will be easier to handle and subdivide seed types.

So I updated my drawing

Before

After

I still keep everything on paper but I have a notekeeping program I use as well. My outer tray has a UPC Label at one end so I noted that on paper and image so I know which end is which. My notekeeping program also syncs to my cloud-ware.

For next Spring, I'll be getting 2 more grow lights, 2 heat mats and 3-4 seed trays. Then I'll build a table/counter top frame or case to hold four trays, lights & heat mats.

[Pollard]

I hear the New Zealand Whites are good eating.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Rabbit is as far down the food chain as I’ll go. Luckily I ‘broke the Beagle’ as Beau says, because he’s been allowed to be our house dog, so he’s less of a hunter and more of a couch potato these days. ;)

[Pollard]

Poultry netting seems to have done the trick so far. I put two jar lids of beer near two full seedlings that were each the last of their variety. I figured those would be the next targets.

Came up 7-8 feet shy on the netting but I had a 10 foot piece of metal roofing sitting right there so I used it to fill in the end.

I’ll have to sit out there in the early evenings down by the shed that the rabbit was living under last year and see what I can see. Might be having rabbit stew for dinner some night. Should have taken care of it last year but I wasn’t growing anything last year so it didn’t seem like a priority.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Had a great Gardening Day, yesterday! It was so nice out - today is breezy, but still sunny.

Uncovered the strawberries and uncovered, fluffed the straw and then recovered the tulips and daffs that are coming up.

Cleaned out the last 3 beds that I didn’t get to last fall. I always do that because it’s actually such a JOY to be out in the garden doing something productive when we get an unexpectedly wonderful day. :)

Accidentally pulled up some strawberry plants, so I potted those and will share them with neighbors that need some, or use them in hanging baskets and porch pots.

Took the pallets that were covering some of the beds (puppy proofing from last fall when Shasta and Fremont could still get through the fencing) and put them where they belong. They were really heavy pallets, so if you were a little bird, you would’ve enjoyed watching me struggle with that! I ‘rolled’ them from end to end, and that worked well! (Wore gloves; no slivers!)

Potted up more dahlias and started on picking up fallen branches and sticks in the yard, but there’s more of that to do today, and of course the current crop of puppies is more than HAPPY to help hauling sticks around. *Rolleyes*

Another week of wet and ‘yucky’ ahead, but these past two days have energized me. :)