Moonrises and Morning Tea: Mark my lettuce

Monday, November 25, 2013

Mark my lettuce

One of the most rewarding vegetables to grow is lettuce.

Here in Southern California, I eat my homegrown lettuce for about 6 months a year, December to June.

I love salads, and eat them almost everyday. I love lettuce. Son-in-law #2 says I am the only person he has ever known that orders "extra lettuce" on my sandwiches and on my In-and-Out Grilled Cheese.

Growing lettuce is beneficial in many ways: the yield is high, the leaves are tasty, the varieties available to grow far exceed what you can buy at Whole Foods or Sprouts or Mothers, the mix of textures and colors makes a presentation that would please any Home Ec teacher, you can pick and eat in a matter of minutes so the nutritional value is greater, you don't have to store lettuce in the refrigerator---just pick it as you need it. Add to all this: lettuce is easy to grow.

Every year I grow a salad bowl of varieties. I add new varieties to the ones that are tried and true.

It is important to me to know which lettuce is which. I've learned with vegetable gardening, it is most important to grow a variety that has the taste you love and that grows well in your location. I want to know which lettuce plants work well for me and, to do so, I need to keep track of their names.

I currently have 9 varieties of lettuce growing and because I want to remember which seedling was which, I wrote each lettuce name on a Popsicle stick...with a Sharpie and stuck it in the ground next the the planted seeds.

After a short 3 weeks, the lettering on the sticks was already fading. I knew I was going to need markers that were more permanent.

I scroll through Pinterest occasionally and dutifully put the ideas that appeal to me on my boards. Less frequently, I actually use the ideas.

One of my boards is "Gardening" and some time ago I saw this idea and filed it to that board.

Painting rocks as garden markers. I thought this seemed like a fun and effective way to keep track of my selection of Red Sails, Black Seeded Simpsons, Nevadas, Rouge d'Hivers, Parris Island Cos, Little Gems, Flames, Buttercrunches, and my latest favorite, Dark Lolla Rossa.

I liked the result so much I painted other vegetable names as well. It was easy....just find some fairly smooth rocks and using acrylic paint add the name and any design, scrolling, dots, squiggles, or lines that strike your fancy onto it.