That is really good

18 years ago

The quite cool spring has been good for something, we have been eating the most delicious romaine type lettuce. Almost always it gets too warm too soon and the romaine lettuces get bitter and aren't good. I always plant about 5' of row hoping but we always wind up just eating the thinnings and tossing the heads in the compost. This spring we have the sweetest 8" tall heads of lettuce that are the best I ever ate. Its been very cool. We dont even bother to dress it, just wash, spin dry and chow down. Sometimes Leone will sprinkle a little balsamic vinegar on it but it really doesn't need anything. We both detest head lettuce and always buy either loose leaf or romaine or sometime we can get good butterhead but the flavor of this, brought in from the garden and cleaned just minutes before eating is superb and different from anything shipped in.

Oh, the variety is Capistrano, I'm fairly sure I got it from Territorial Seed but I pitched the empty package and just noted the variety on the wall of the garden shed.

On the minus side, the poor tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are just huddling there looking cold.

The apple trees are full of tiny apples just waiting for the normal self-pruning that apples do, the peach trees even have fruit beginning, we'll cross our fingers on them. Too many bad things seem to happen to our fruit crop, since I use no chemicals on them we just hope that bug traps and predator insects are doing their thing.

Enough rhapsodysing about food.

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Comments (5)

mwoods
18 years ago
I've grown Capistrano and I agree,it's excellent. What I like about it is that it doesn't bolt and you can pick it late into the summer. I think Territorial is one of the best catalogs around. Hang in there..those peppers and tomatoes will perk up.
lindajewell
18 years ago
I have never grown veggies, but when I was at my apartment my neighbor grow several different types of lettuce, green onions, and tomatoes. He would tell me just take what I wanted, so I would go out right before dinner and get some lettuce, oh my gosh that was so good!! As were the tomatoes when they came in.............

No, I am not going to start growing veggies now either. Most of my flowers are already eaten to the ground by the deer, bunnies and chipmunks, can you imagine how fat they would be with the veggies!
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andie_rathbone
18 years ago
It usually is too hot here by the end of March or the beginning of April for lettuce, but given our growing season we can keep it alive all winter with a little TLC. We're now into hot season veggies in a big way. We're picking the zucchinis (I may regret planting these - LOL!) and also the cherry tomatoes and the first of the peppers. Unfortunately some kind of bug has been feasting on my eggplant, so what I get from those may be problematic. Still it's great to be getting produce out of my own garden.
meldy_nva
18 years ago
Gandle ~ Please wrap those poor pepper [and tomato] plants with row cover or even an old sheet. You don't have to remove the cover until the day temps get into the mid-80Â°s. They'll be much happier.

And speaking of wrapping, DH & I finally wrapped the Montmorency cherry tree in netting, much to the disappointment of the bluejays, robins, doves, sparrows, catbirds and assorted other feathery folk. This is its second year of producing, but the first that we may have a chance of tasting. For those who don't know, birds consider a barely pink cherry to be just fine eating and can clean off a tree in about 4 hours.
jazmynsmom
18 years ago
Yay! So glad your blossoms didn't get frosted off this year! We're enjoying really good salads right now too.

As for the tomatoes and peppers, have you seen these things? Perhaps you grow in quantities too large for them to be practical, but they are really more useful than gimmicky. They can be reused from year to year, really do help warm up the ground in early spring, and will protect from a frost without additional work. The only downside is that it takes at least three hands to set 'em up, so don't go it alone and expect not to be frustrated...