Backyard Winter Gardening by Warnock Caleb

Backyard Winter Gardening by Warnock Caleb

Author:Warnock, Caleb [Warnock, Caleb]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00


Once you cover the lettuce, you will need to open the cold frame roughly every three weeks to water by hand. One caution: When your lettuce suddenly begins to look like it is dying in the cold frame or hotbed in November, December, January, or February, it is easy to think, “Well, Caleb was wrong. This lettuce can't survive the cold after all.” But your lettuce is probably not dying of cold—it desperately needs a drink. Even in December and January, a cold frame or hotbed can get fairly warm during the day and sometimes even downright hot. And that means your lettuce is drying out slowly from the heat, even when the whole world seems to be frozen solid outside. So if your lettuce looks like it is dying, go water it, and it will quickly revive and look great. You don't need to water every week. I find that watering about every three weeks is okay, but you have to keep an eye on your cold frames and hotbeds, and if it becomes unusually warm, water them every two weeks. Water between noon and 3 p.m.

I have tried to be as detailed as possible in this chapter, but I don't want you, dear reader, to think this is intimidating or hard stuff. Growing fresh lettuce all winter in your backyard garden is easy and takes little time or effort. Anyone can do it, and kids love to help. No excuses. Everyone with even the smallest garden space should have fresh lettuce all winter. It is so much cheaper than the grocery store lettuce, and it tastes so much better! Be proud to feed your family fresh, healthy gourmet salads from your provident winter garden. And best of all, you will be teaching your children, young or old, at the dinner table about the bounty of the winter garden.

HOW TO HARVEST

Simply cut your lettuce off at ground level. You will need to do some cleaning. There will be a few dead leaves on your winter lettuce and a few winter-burned leaf tips. Pick these out to put in your compost later. After picking out the dead leaves, I wash my lettuce three times in a colander. If you are going to use the lettuce that day, you can put it on the counter in a covered bowl with just a splash of water in the bottom. This keeps the humidity high in the bowl, which is the key to keeping your lettuce fresh and crisp (whether you are picking it in winter or summer).

To make life easier in winter—after all, it's cold outside, and no one wants to go out and pick lettuce in a blizzard—I pick about a week's worth of lettuce at a time on a sunny winter afternoon. I keep it in a covered bowl, with a splash of water in the bottom, inside the fridge. It will stay fresh and crisp for up to two weeks, in my experience—far longer than anything you get from the grocery store.



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