Matt’s Adventures in Northwest Gardening

Here is the before mentioned box of lettuce. As you can see, it has sprouted now, beating not only the frost and freeze but also the fact that they are more-than-two year old seeds.

When you buy mixed green in those little tubs at Costco or wherever, they are apparently chopped down using a laser cutter, so as to avoid bruising the lettuce. I think we’ll just use the regular kitchen shears for harvesting methods.

We have a few dozen of these wood boxes around the house. Hopefully at some point I can figure out a rotation with planting to ensure that we have year-round patio-fresh lettuce.

Well, I learned that a mere roof overhang cannot stop my planter from freezing. I was going by an assumption based on what happens when you keep a car under cover vs in the open. I went outside this AM, and attempted to push my finger into the soil - but instead i dislodged a 1 inch brick of frozen soil that covered the whole top of the box.

Alas, sustained temperature of 28 °F will freeze a dampened planter regardless of where it is placed. I think I will next experiment with some sort of plastic frost cover over the top of the box, rather than rely on an overhang 7 feet above it.

So this is the first post of hopefully a full year of posts. My mission for this site is to chronicle the adventures and hazards I encounter while attempting to grow a successful garden in the

Pacific Northwest.Today, for example, I planted some 2 year old seeds into an old wooden apple crate, lined with some felt and filled with new and clean potting soil. It is the end of January - the ground was frozen this AM. I am going to attempt to grow some mesclun lettuce while the ground is not yet thawed. I would normally plan to include pictures - but my camera is D.E.D., so I am shipping it off to the Canon digital camera elves tomorrow to get fixed.

So Onward! To the next seed, to the next sprout, to the next soil test and to, hopefully, the next post.

-M