Looking forward

zarazara

I am fortunate in that I can enlarge my veg and friut plot for next year. I an aiming to be as self suffiecient as possible in fruit,veg,jams,codials,chutneys,wine etc.
I ahve realised that we eat a lot of lettuce! and need to grow much more. So with this in mind,how many cabbage,lettuce etc would you grow if space as unlimited? Wouls it be an impossible task? just looking for ideas and input please.

Kay_Peel

Rather than grow whole lettuces, I buy packets of Baby Leaf salad seed.

I look for a good mix of my favourite lettuces and some interesting ones that aren't readily available in supermarkets

Instead of sowing them all at once, I sow them in pots or in a small patch of my garden, every two weeks. I sow them quite thickly.

I cut off the baby leaves and new ones re-grow. I can take about 2 or 3 harvests from each plant before it gets tired. I pull it out, stick a new seed in its place and away it grows again.

When it's too cold outside, I carry on sowing them in a trough in my porch. It means that I get salad leaves all year round.

Good luck!

annie123

I never grow enough, been trying to get it right for 30 years!

I worked it out several times over the decades as little ones became bigger ones, then bigger than mum, and now gone....well 1 has, but on a bungee cord:cool:

tray= one of those alive salad things from supermarket only I grow my own like that, making sure I have 3 ready to pick from on kitchen windows

At the mo for 3 adults for lunches and dinners:

summer; 1 tray of mixed leaves a day plus per week, 1 head of lettuce plus a few leaves of land cress etc

Winter; goes down to 2 trays a week

spring and autumn; well depends on the weather 2-5 trays a week or 1-3 heads of lettuce

My son whos gf almost lives there gets through 2 tray and a lettuce head a week in the summer, and hardy anything in the winter...he does his shopping in my garden for lettuce and anything he fancies!

Plus grow some for the slugs.
I am able to grow only a fraction of what we use, I'd need an allotment just for lettuces. I try to make use of chard, beetroot leaves, spinach etc

Goes back to eyeing up the the park at the bottom of the garden, wonder if they would notice a few salad crops in that nice green area :whistle:

zarazara

THANKYOU ,what lovely replies. annie123,go on, give the park a go! a bit of geirrilla gardening..................
I am planning on several rows of brassicas and the other stuff will just have to work out somehow. I have lots of rhubarb,5 plants,but am hoping to try making rhubarb wine next year too. I just LOVE my allotment.

cootambear

Ive never made it but I suspect rhubarb would make a fine champagne.

cootambear

I have some guttering around my garden which effectively increases growing space. It is of course shallow, but thats ok for lettuce. Water often though.............................

Zazen999

I have a little jar in the greenhouse in which I put all the lettuce seeds that I have. I usually buy about 3 packs of seed every few years as they last eons. I empty the seed all into the jar and every few weeks, sow a small tray of lettuce. I don't sow from Oct to Jan; as they won't grow but pretty much every other month. This means I have lettuce almost all year round. This time of year it is up within 24 hours in the greenhouse. I grow it under cloches and in the greenhouse during the winter and if you don't have greenhouses; best to get winter lettuces like butterheads, as you'll get a better return.