Easy Recipes From The Garden

Lettuce is an easy to grow annual vegetable that should be a staple in every garden. There is nothing like going out to the garden and snipping off a few cool, crunchy leaves of lettuce for a salad or a sandwich (mmm …. BLTs!). Lettuce is easy to grow - just sow the seeds right into the ground (or in a container), and in a few weeks you’ll have leaves or bunches of lettuce ready for the picking.

Lettuce is a cool weather crop so start the plants early in the spring, or later in the summer. Keep the plants shaded for the most part, and pick off a few leaves every few days so that the plants continue to grow and produce.

If you enjoy heirloom or organic fruits and vegetables, such as from farmers’ markets, try planting a seed or two from the produce. I recently planted a handful of seeds from a bag of organic Meyer lemons I bought, dreaming that someday I might have a Meyer lemon tree of my own to grow my own sweet and tart little fruits. Guess what - they have sprouted. Granted, it may not bear fruit for seven years, if at all, but it might still turn out to be a pretty house plant.

Heirlooms are such that the seeds have been saved and passed down from generations, thus the”heirloom” name. As such, the seeds can usually be planted and the plants will generate fruit. For best results, use seeds from self-pollinators such as beans, peas, peanuts, lettuce, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes.

This year I invested in one of those heated indoor greenhouse kits (similar to this one) to start my spring seeds. So far, it’s sped up the germination process for almost all of the seeds I planted.

I started seeds for:

Purple basil

Rosemary

Genovese basil

Carrot

Garlic chives

Leeks

Bloody butcher tomatoes

Brandywine tomatoes

2 types of lettuce

I also planted a few Meyer lemon seeds from some lemons we purchased from an organic store and - lo and behold - they are sprouting! In fact, everything in the greenhouse has sprouted, some within two days of being planted. I’m thrilled that the plants are growing so quickly and that I will soon be able to move them outside to the garden. Maybe this year my vegetables will be ready for harvest a little earlier.