photo by Kathleen Slattery
This Week’s Theme: Veggies
Pam Dawling, of Sustainable Market Farming, wrote a Mother Earth News blog piece about growing lettuce year round and included this photo by Kathleen Slattery of a buttercrunch bibb lettuce head. It’s a stunning piece of natural art. Love the rich green color with the patterned textures in each of the leaves.
About growing lettuce she states:
One simple way to extend the harvest period of each lettuce sowing is to sow several different varieties on the same day. Choose varieties with different numbers of days to maturity, including at least one fast one and one slow one. There can be quite large differences in days to maturity, for instance Buttercrunch is a small, fast, reliable green 48-day butterhead (bibb) and romaine lettuces generally take 55-58 days. Looseleaf lettuces like the 50-day Salad Bowls are a very useful lettuce type because you can harvest individual leaves off the whole row while you wait for the heads to reach full size.
About herself and gardening she states:
Because it is important to me to make best use of every small space in the garden, and every window in the calendar, I started to keep records of our successes and failures. With the help of a large hooophouse, we achieved several years of close to self-reliance in vegetables. To reach this point, I researched better methods, better varieties, better timing. It seemed natural to start writing up what I have learned.
View more of her lettuce posts via her “lettuce” blog category.
Inspiration
“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh
Happy Coloring!
joyfully, Maureen
www.TheMandalaLady.com
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