Spring, Sprung, Lettuce.

Every summer, I have a few lettuce plants that I don't get to quite in time and they start to bolt. Bolted lettuce starts to take on a very bitter taste, not really something you want to eat. Instead of pulling it out I always let it grow, and here's why:


All those little light-green plants are new lettuce plants!

I don't do anything to protect them over winter (although we always get a good snow pack) the seeds that fell last summer will just go dormant and perk up as soon as the weather starts to warm up.

Now we'll have some lovely heads to harvest in just a few more weeks!

The only problem with this method, is that lettuce seeds have little tufts on them, so they tend to blow around quite a bit. This is only an issue if you're really set on a neat & tidy garden. It's very easy to tell a bright green lettuce from weeds and lettuce won't compete with the other veggies in your garden.

Bolted Lettuce

Dried lettuce with seed

Diving into your First Garden

Beginning gardeners always ask the same inevitable questions: How much space? What should I grow?

How Big to Go

Don’t bite off more than you can chew. No, really. No really, really, really. It’s so tempting when you start out, to get under all that nasty sod and bring in some lovely veggies. Especially once you catch “the Bug”. You need to balance how much food you want to produce, the time you want to spend in the garden, and how much land you have to work with. A properly maintained container garden will produce much more than a mismanaged ¼ acre.

First choose veggies your family actually likes & eats (leave experimenting for your second year on). Then look at varieties appropriate to your area and some quick research can tell you how much you can expect one plant to produce. Then deduce from there how much you need to grow and how much land that will take up. (I'll write more about how to do this in a later article) 

You don't need to become completely self-supporting in a summer! Just a little something homegrown to add to a special meal once a week, will go a long way. 

Contain your Excitement

Containers are a great way to start. They give you an opportunity to take your first year to prepare a larger garden while still producing food; and you may find you like container gardening so much, you don’t want to go to a full-scale set-up.

Almost every vegetable has a variety that will do well in a pot, including pumpkins and other squash. It’s even possible to grow field crops in modified containers. Climbing peas and beans can do very well in a gutter and trellis set up. Lettuce can be grown almost anywhere and in almost anything that holds soil. Containers, in general, require much less weeding, in part because you can employ weed-suppression methods (such as landscape fabric) for less money because you’re doing it on a small scale. Plus it is so easy to extend your season by just bringing you plants indoors for a few extra weeks of harvest when it gets cold.

Containers are a great way to just dip your toes in the gardening pool to test the waters before you jump right in.

Going Grass-less

If your goal is simply that you hate mowing there are lots more options then turning it all into veg. This would be a good place to look into naturalization and permaculture. Vegetable gardens obviously produce tons of yummy food, but they aren't necessarily going to take up less of your time, or less water, than lawn.

You can always get bigger

I started out with a 6’x3’ square, last year I had 12’ x 31’ to work in, and this year, even more. If you stretch yourself to thin before you knowledge and skill can catch up, you’re going to burn out and end up hating gardening. 6’ by 6’ or even 4’x4’ is a very manageable amount of space and you’ll be amazed at how much food a well fertilized patch that size can produce.

Keep it in the Community

If you don’t have any space, or you’re feeling too nervous about doing it all on your own, look into community projects; they are sprouting up everywhere! It’s a great way to get to know all your localy veg-head neighbours and soak up all their knowledge & experiences before bringing that back to your own home garden.

What to do, when you gotta move

Our moving boxes

This is a problem that faces most veggie gardeners at least once in their career; especially because the high-season for real estate clashes with prime gardening time. What to do when you have to move part way through the gardening season. Except not moving, and not gardening; neither are legitimate options.

Start Early Crops

Depending on when you are moving, you may still have enough time for a few quick crops. Things like lettuce, cauliflower, beets all do best in cool weather By starting early indoors and taking advantage of early season extenders (like row covers) you can get at least a little something out of your garden before you move. Plus, if you leave a prepared garden behind, you may ignite the garden bug in the new home-owners.

Transplant Smart

We're moving in June, and Ottawa doesn't get warm until June. So when it comes to squash and other warm-weather crops I'm not losing any time and I'll start those plants the same time I normally would.

Count back from your move date and pretend it's your frost date. You'll probably want to give yourself an extra week after you move so you've got time to unpack before you have to transplant. If you've got to put your garden in as well, you may need to give yourself even more time.

Use rubber-maid/storage containers with lids to start your transplants in so you don't end up with soil all over you car's carpet when you have to move them. 

Don't let your plants get leggy. Veggies like squash and tomatoes can become fragile and unhealthy as they grow too large in small pots. It's best to keep them a little on the small size for the move.

Short Season Crops

This may be a good year to invest in some shorter season crops. You may not be able to find them at your local garden shop if you live in the south (most garden shops only stock for the zone they are in) but there are lots of online seed shops you can order from. Just because something is for a shorter season doesn't mean anything about heat tolerance, so you need to research. By choosing shorter season crops you'll be able to squish your veggies into the time you do have available, and you can use them in other years for succession planting.

Contain It

If you're moving right in the middle of your season, this may be the answer for you. Choose light-weight containers that will be easy to move, and varieties that do well in containers. Luckily there are varieties of almost every vegetable tailored for container growing, including miniature corn and pumpkins. For moving day you may want to stake your plants & plastic wrap to cover the soil.

Raise it Up

You can purchase pre-made raised bed containers, adding that with the price of soil this may be a pretty expensive option but it does mean you could have a ready-to-go garden in an afternoon.

Let's Make a Deal

Talk to your Realtor; some sellers would be amicable to letting you on the property for at least a day just to turn up your soil and create a vegetable garden. This obviously varies greatly by personality & situation but if that's your only options it's not going to hurt to ask.