Popeye would be proud. These are after about two weeks, and the main leaves are starting in. In the background are the lettuce plants I over planted figuring I’d eat the thinnings, which I have – though I find thinning a bit annoying. Next set of lettuce I plant I’ll plop myself down at the kitchen table and carefully plant the lettuce so there’ll be less fussing with them.

Most spinach leaves you get from the store seem to go after a week or less if they’re not handled delicately. A couple of bruised leaves and they start to smell and go bad shortly afterward. It will be interesting to see how much of a yield we get. One of the downsides of the shallow planting is the frequent watering. Think we’ll go with a three inch depth on the potting mix next time so the watering can be less frequent.

Don’t recycle those fancy microwave steamers just yet – they make a great starter container for just about everything you can transplant as well as for salads from start to finish. Healthy Choice (available at your favorite supermarket in the frozen food section) makes an inexpensive meal and gives you a great seed starting container too!   Read more ›

Lettuce Growth as of 2013-03-16 before picking.

The lettuce continues to grow, and the one on the right is doing so well, I decided to pick a salad now.  Picked 0.75 oz or a small garden salad’s worth from the one on the right, and it’s still got plenty of leaves.  On the left, the lettuce has gotten larger without getting leggy.  This is good to see, but it’s time to start growing a salad garden in earnest – so another grow box is in the works for a true indoor salad garden.  A grow box is just a pot and saucer on steroids.  Using a thermally insulated box like the one pictured here or a storage container, you make a reservoir, a “wicking” area or “wicking agent” – basically a small area where the soil can reach the bottom of the reservoir without filling the reservoir with soil, a drain hole on the side so your plants have no chance of standing in water and rotting, and a soil area where your plants will grow.  Water will wick up to one foot in most potting mixes, and sometimes more, depending on the mix.  We will be creating a quick and easy grow box in a coming post.

Lettuce after picking – still a lot of leaves!

Over three pounds of carrots from a single pot!

Here they are using an “autopot” which is meant for hydroponics, but they find that rooted plants do better in soil.  After four months, 3.3 lbs (1.5 kilos) of carrots of all different sizes emerge! They planted densely, and thinned as the plants got bigger, so it’s not maintenance free, but for patio gardens, growing in the winter, growing indoors, it seems a pretty good arrangement, especially since you know what went into and onto the plants – probably nothing toxic…

Another way to have your carrots and eat it’s neighbors is to plant carrots and radishes, harvesting the radishes when they are ready.  As stated in Indoor Salad Gardening: “…radishes will be ready before the carrots, and the carrots will appreciate the extra room when their neighbors are invited to dinner!“