Winter Greens

While the rest of the country was suffering from the Polar Vortex, I planted lettuce.  The remaining green onions were thoroughly infested by some kind of tick/spider/mite looking bugs and had to go.  I should have finished them months ago anyway.

I was really at the garden shop to get more bug spray so the tick things wouldn't attack the tomatoes, my remaining productive plant from last year.  (Jury's still out on Gus.  He's hanging on.)  I had to pass the vegetable section to get to the food & pesticide racks, and they had a bunch of lettuces and greens.  For $4, I got a six-pack of assorted lettuces, which more than filled the area.  It didn't say how far apart to put them, so they are staggered about a foot apart.  I made sure I could get to them from the back if they grow too bushy together.

My primary objective is to suppress weeds by introducing a dominant plant.  The side effect is salad.  I figure that eight dinner-sized salads, or about a pound of leaves, will be my break-even point.  I can start to harvest in about 45 days, around the beginning of March.

It's not in the fountain garden, but I thought I'd show off how massive and fast the artichoke is coming up this year.  It's already close to four feet across.

Oh, and I thought I was over my fear of spiders.  Found one crawling up my arm while I was putting in a plant and screamed bloody murder.  Guess not.