How to Harvest Leaf Lettuce

Today was the day for our first real "harvest." Other than picking some snow peas and strawberries only to eat right away:). We planted an organic "Lettuce Leaf Salad Bowl Blend", and I have to say it has been one of the best things we've had growing in the garden and it was finally ready for harvest:)!  Leaf Lettuce is probably one of the easier plants to harvest, but here's a quick video explaining how we did it:)

The progress thus far...

I am waaay behind on blogging, but I just made some videos of what's going on here at the New Beginnings Organic Garden and I thought I would share:). I feel like I may say this every time I make a new post but eventually I hope to keep it more up to date:). I will also one day blog about the previous work it took even to get to this point! :) So, without further ado, here is a simple video of where things are at. Enjoy! :)

A few things I forgot to mention in the video are that the large plants next to the carrots are broccoli, we also have peppers, spinach, oregano and some marigolds and zinnias growing in the garden:).

Oh the places you'll go...

Before even purchasing seeds, our gardening adventure began with driving to a small organic farm in small town Kansas. Two of my friends and I road-tripped two hours to purchase a worm farm, walk around the garden, and ask lots of questions. I was of course equipped with pad and paper in hand:).

Quite the deary day when we started out

On our way we stopped in Topeka, Kansas and had lunch at cute local cafe that serves vegan & vegetarian meals, local coffee & organic teas. It was such a cute and unique place, I could of chilled there all day:)! I highly recommend it if your driving through Topeka. It was decently priced as well. Here is a link to their website, Blue Planet Cafe . And some pics to show you:)

Buffalo Bierocks with a House Salad

Before even this trip began, I spent a lot of time on the phone with this organic farmer, aka "Wormlady":). When I first looked into organic gardening I learned about this funny thing called "Worm castings"... which boils down to a sophisticated way of saying worm poop:). As gross as it might sound having a worm farm and harvesting their poop, organic gardeners swear by this stuff and call it, "black gold". To me, it was an easy solution to harvest free rich fertilizer for the garden, especially for my living situation being in a townhouse. So off we went, to the middle of Kansas... I'm so glad I have friends to go on adventures with! Stay tuned to hear more about the adventures of worm farming:) and here is a link to the farm we visited: Rising Mist Organic Farm .

The "Gardening RoundTable"

Well, I am waaaay behind on blog posts, but my sis however got to go to a gardening meeting back home in Pennsylvania and wanted to share the wealth from that on this blog:). Yay for community gardening, even across the nation! :)

I had the pleasure of attending a Gardening Roundtable on March 24, 2011 at Sonnewald Natural Foods with my husband, best friend and her husband. There were 3 local speakers who all work small farms in the area. Here are the nuggets from their talks:

Soil/General Gardening

• Resources- Any book by Rodale, Complete Book of Composting, Secrets of the Soil
• Usually by St. Patrick’s Day can put cold weather seeds in the ground outside (some lettuces, carrots, peas, potatoes, turnips)
• 4’x8’ beds are a good size, raised if possible, do not use pressure treated wood to make the frame, locust or cedar will last the longest
• Square foot gardening technique is great for getting the most yield out of small spaces
• In PA will need to add 1 cup dolomite lime per year to keep soil slightly acidic
• Soil should be compost-based to provide more nutrients for a longer period of time but be careful because it will hold water more
• Can make your own compost with a mix of minerals, peat moss or rice hulls, vermiculite and perlite
• Organic Mechanic soil mix is good, mixture of pine bark, worm castings, rice hulls. Drains well but if the plants are in it for more than 5 weeks will need to use a fish-based fertilizer to supplement (They have this at Sonnewald and I bought a bag today for a little over $6 which is comparable to more well-known brands.)
• Vermont Compost and Fertrel are also good companies
• Good, nutrient-rich soil is vital to grow crops with high nutrient contents
• When watering gardens, remember that people don’t like cold showers and neither do plants. Instead of watering with a hose, better to let some buckets of water sit out a few days to get to the air temperature before watering

Pests

• To keep pests away, ground vinegar, garlic, lemon in blender then sift through cheesecloth and spray after each rain on plants
• Companion planting can also help w/ pests (i.e. marigolds throughout the beds)
• Floating row covers can also help
• Organic sprays can be used, neem oil is good for stopping Mexican bean beetle

Seeds

• Good seed companies include Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Johnny’s
• Don’t plant more than 1/8-1/4” deep (3x the size of the seed), larger seeds should go in larger cells if planting in flats
• Heat and water needed for germination, light not necessary until seeds sprout
• If using grow lights, place 4-6” above flats
• When watering, but sure to hit the corners and to water completely, not just the top of the soil, flats should be nearly dry before re-watering
• Be sure to check on the maturity date, sometimes the company starts the maturity date counting from the time of planting the seed, other times from the time of transplantation to outdoors.
• Typical rule of thumb is to start indoors 4-6 weeks before transplanting outside

They also talked about the need to use organic seeds and no chemicals, as well as being conscious of what neighbors are using on their yards and gardens as this can leech into your beds. The one speaker had been in industrial agriculture for a long time and spoke briefly of the patents on genetically modified seeds and that farmers are being sued for trying to reuse seeds that they gathered from their fields (the companies, such as Monsanto, that patent the seeds require that you purchase them each year and often also require you to use their chemical fertilizers and pesticides).

I hope to attend future events as this one to gain more information from experts, as well as a weed walk with the owner, Grace. She did have some chickweed available to try :)

Here we go! :)

SO, I'm not sure how much I will get into this blogging thing:). But I thought it would be a great way to document my journey in starting an organic community garden, as well as to share it with anyone else wanting to start a garden. If I'm gonna go through all this work, why not post it and share that wealth with others:). I would also love Love LOVE to see many many more community gardens started up, so if this can be a way of assisting and inspiring others than I have done my job:).

I really hope this blesses you and I will try my hardest to keep things up to date. I will also probably share some of my journey in eating healthier, and well, just a healthier lifestyle all around:). Come along for the journey, I can promise you that you won't want to go back! :)