I'm loading up on chard. After this summer, I have officially declared that a winter crop in my neck of the woods. Wilts every day in the intense heat. You can keep it alive if you water every day.

Tox - I thought that summer had broken here in MO too but this last week was pretty rough on my fall garden. I THINK that my mini romaine lettuce made it thru without bolting but I should know for sure in a few days. At least we have a cold front moving thru tonight with forecast highs in the 70s in the long ranger.

I think you need to do a little thinning. LOL

Yeah 'a little thinning' is the understatement of the week. I'll get credit for some delicious micro green salads though. :-]

The snow peas I planted are about 8" high and not liking the 90 degree temps much. If I can just nurse them until it cools off they will be ready to go, I hope. Never grown them in the fall so it's an experiment.

Cilantro self seeds in my high tunnel here in zone 5/NH. I end up with new plants sprouting at different times of the growing season. Usually it bolts pretty quickly but right now I have the leafy plants like I usually see at the grocery store but I think this strange hot weather is going to do them in. Meanwhile, we didn't get the early light frost around 9/18 we usually do. All the photos look like you've got some great eating.

I thinned this morning, just pulling out the bigger plants indiscriminately, and got a nice pile of micro greens for salad. I think I could do that almost daily for the next couple weeks just to keep up.

All this warm weather has been rough on my winter Kales and collards. They have been growing very fast. I need them to slow down. I have gotten them too big before and then when the first frost comes along, they are too big. Going to start harvesting some next week. They were transplanted September 10th, this pic was from Sept 17, Now they are almost canopied and covering the whole bed.

Tox you could probably thin until Christmas and not make a dent!

Jay - at least it has finally cooled down to normal temps now. We missed your posting over the summer! You were probably pretty busy with the growing family and market garden to boot. Now that you are back in school you have some 'free time'?

I'm surprised that my Dragoon( thanks for the recommendation Jay!), Breen, and lone Sparx lettuce hasn't bolted. One of the Breen looks a little iffy so I'm going to harvest it this week. They are pretty close to being fully headed up already.

Yes, your second one from the bottom looks like it is trying to bolt. I have been very busy that is for sure. Now back to school work.

Here's the patch about 5 days ago...growing fast and I have to thin every couple of days. But that's OK, we're eating delicious fresh baby greens.

I noticed the lettuces and kale are hiding underneath and the turnip/mustard/spinach are kind of dominating. So I'm pulling out the largest plants and eventually the smaller slower ones can peek through and get some light.

This is working great so far!

Tox - I might have to try that next fall. I have a few packets of greens that are getting long in the tooth and should probably be used soon.

It ended up that about 1/2 of my first planting of mini romaine bolted. I harvested 2 of the bolted ones on Sunday and soaked them in ice water for a couple hours and they tasted fine with no bitterness. None of the second planting a week or so later bolted in the heat. I think next year I am going to plant them out around labor day so they are not already trying to head up if/when we have a late September hot spell.

Got my little greenhouse planted with 140 heads for a second planting of lettuce. I need to tear out the tomatoes out of another of my high tunnels and start transplanting in lettuce and other crops.

Here are the 3rd, 4th and 5th plantings of lettuce in my greenhouse. Still need to seed a 6th planting and then start the ones to replace these plants in a month

I am growing lettuce in high density method to see how well it works, direct seeding very closely in rows. Watched these two videos.....amazing difference in volume of harvest!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1_Nz8AdTW0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWeFH1MVHko

Impressive as usual Jay! It's hard to contemplate that you can still plant out new seedlings in November around here and they grow well. IIRC you have some supplemental heating in the new little greenhouse? Is that the only place you are going to transplant into in November or will you plant in your high tunnels as well?

Babushka - I didn't look at the videos. Are you seeding only leaf lettuce types?

I may start my indoor lettuce a little bit earlier this year. Last year I did the first sowing around Thanksgiving and was harvesting before Christmas. I may sow some around Halloween this year and then more a few weeks later.

@lone jack - yes. my garden is so petite, i can't afford to lose space to heads when i just tear the leaves apart anyway to eat them.

heartsick to discover my very old plum tree that came with my house has a disease. fearing it may need to be removed. in which case more sun and space in garden but uggg would hate to remove that tree, would be terrible. it is the premier tree of the yard. but also over 50 yrs old.

Sorry to hear.

Speaking of these greenhouses and tunnels, could I put one over my little 4x12 bed of greens? Is there anything special you use for plastic sheeting and framing? I should probably just search the web but if anyone has a favorite tutorial or other link, please share.

Tox - for that bed probably just about 4 10' - 1/2" PVC with some 6 mil plastic would give you a few extra weeks unless we get down to the mid teens. You could also use Agribon instead of plastic. There are different weights that offer between 3 and 10 degrees of protection.

@Tox - move to CA - you can garden all year, rarely freezes here! :)

Lonejack, I will be transplanting the next 3 plantings into a high tunnel over the next month. I have done 4 plantings before, but the first one gets too big and the last one not big enough. Here is a picture from several years ago in one of my big tunnels. This picture was taken at the end of October. The earliest planting is on the left and the last one is 4 beds over. You can see the gradual decline in size. That is because of varied planting dates and transplanting dates.

With that said, I planted the ones in my little greenhouse about 10 days later than I wanted too (got too busy). So I am hoping I can get them to harvestable size by November 1st. After I harvest the greenhouse lettuce, I will transplant with more lettuce. With any luck, we will be able to start harvesting that lettuce in late December- End of February. I have these 3 beds and I am going to add one more bed on the back wall.

I have planted on November 12th before in one of my big high tunnels and this is their size on December 15th. Here is what they looked like when I transplanted them. https://youtu.be/HpWYfe8xLbo

@babushka- I am growing to sell and while I do like your method, I have found that in the dead of winter, it is harder to manage lettuce like that. You will get frozen leaves that die and then you have to sort and pick through your greens after you harvest and before you bag. Not fun to pick through 15-20 pounds of lettuce. Also, it takes much more labor to do it that way. I also will have spinach, 3 types of kale, chard, collards, and some brassica mixes to wash and bag.

For me, I harvest the whole heads, dunk in tubs of clean water and then drip it dry and either pack it into tubs or bag each head and it is ready to sell. Also I can charge less for it than the bagged baby greens and make more as my labor is much lower.

Thanks for sharing! Looks great.