Planting Greens

Once the current heat wave passes, I'm going to plant my winter lettuces.  Some of the seeds I bought won't germinate if the soil is above 75º.  Since I don't have to worry about frost, that means I can direct sow when the autumn Santa Ana winds are done, generally the week of Halloween.

First up, I had to dig out the last of the past winter's lettuces.  My least favorite of the mesclun mix refused to die or bolt, no matter how hot it got.  They also didn't want to pull out, even with moist soil.  I got out the shovel and dug down to get out the taproot.  And then I dug some more.  And once again to make sure I got all of it.  I wish my carrots would grow that deep.

So what did I pick?  Not another mix of random seeds.  With a year of experience in unusual greens and past experience with spinach, I had a better idea of what I wanted to grow.  I got spinach, arugula, romaine, and cress.  The first three I chose because I like them, but often have a hard time going through a package before it starts to spoil.  The cress, just because it's cool.  It's also hard to find in stores and expensive when you do find it.  I actually don't have room for it in the lettuce patch, so it's getting the cucumber pot.  Eggy is still producing, so I'll keep her for a bit, but the last tiny cucumber squeaked itself out last week.

Meanwhile, I'm going to have a Halloween pumpkin!  It's in the pond and not the front yard, but at least it's something.  There might be one on the remaining front yard vine, but I'm not counting on it.  And on my latest round of de-minting, I found three long runner roots over two feet long.  So tired of battling the mint.