How Does Your - Lettuce get organized

It’s absolutely crazy how full the lettuce has gotten since I moved them to the shady spot next to the garage and now I feel terrible that I let them fry in the heat for so long. I’m going to move the cucumbers too, just in case. Everyone else looks pretty happy where they’re at. I’m trying not to be too tough on myself because I knew I’d have a steep learning curve going into this, but just like thinning my flower beds, it’s hard not to feel bad. Regardless, the lettuce looks fantastic and we may soon be faced with a conundrum; should I harvest my iceberg lettuce once it’s grown a full head, or should I treat it like a leaf lettuce and cut a few outer leaves off at a time while letting the plant as a whole continue to grow? There is some debate when it comes to deciding how you’d like to harvest your iceberg lettuce. Most articles say that iceberg lettuce does best if you let it form the entire head before cropping it. The plant itself will die after that. A few articles suggest treating it as a leaf lettuce, like green, red, or oak leaf varieties, and snipping off a few leaves at a time, but they caution that iceberg doesn’t do quite as well using that method. Since this whole season has been somewhat of an experiment I say we do both. I’ll let the lettuce at work grow into full heads and I’ll treat my iceberg at home like a leaf lettuce. My goats are already doing that anyway, so why not? This way I can give out the heads at the office rather than try to manage a bunch of loose leaves. But because our office lettuce was stunted by the heat, it may take a bit longer for them to reach their full potential, if they do at all. Time will tell. My husband’s auntie, Rhonda Mueller, gave me a pail full of milorganite lawn fertilizer and she said that the deer absolutely hate it. She puts it in little sachets around her garden and hanging from her tomato cages and it has done wonders in keeping the deer out (it didn’t do much for the bear that wandered through her yard and smooshed her garlic, but that’s another story). I took that home and promptly scattered it around my containers. The deer haven’t been nearly as invasive as my goats, Fergus and Ernie, but maybe the milorganite will give them something to think about too. Thanks Rhonda! I have been spending a decent amount of time tackling the weeds on the back patio with my weed torch, which is my new best friend and possibly the solution to every problem I’ve ever had in my life. It’s not too heavy and it didn’t buzz through the single-pound propane tank I bought for it nearly as fast as I thought it would. It’s easy to use and light by myself even though I did have some assistance from Brian Wilson and Kelly Schmidt the first time around, which was probably smart on their behalf as I may have looked a little too eager to run out back and start setting things on fire. The only caveat is that it’s taking me a little bit longer than I thought it was going to. I kind of anticipated using the torch the same way as weed-killing chemicals; give it a once over and you’re good to go. Wrong. These weeds are not going down without a fight and I definitely have to give each one a few seconds before I can move onto the next. But that’s okay, I’ll get the jungle tamed and then I’ll never let it get this bad again. I have plans for our little patio that involve a thrifted table and chair set, an umbrella, a fountain and a pitcher full of margaritas. Well, maybe not that last one, but you get the vision. I’m not going to let the weeds keep me from fulfilling my patio dreams. My bolted radish still appears to be clinging to life, which is just fine since our splitting peas, which are occupying the radishes’ empty containers, are starting to pop out of the dirt already. In about 50 days we should be seeing some produce and we’ll pause to decide what we’d like to put in those containers next. No container left behind. I realized that I made a mistake in not documenting when my plants should be harvested. I am an annoyingly organized, type-A kind of person and live by my calendar. I was tedious with documenting and keeping track of when my seeds needed to be transplanted, but once I got them in the containers I completely let them fend for themselves and didn’t bother reminding myself when they’d be ready to harvest. What the heck? So I went back and did the math and added the dates to my calendar. I’ve also been thinking of keeping a journal to keep track of my notes, what worked and what didn’t. I looked online and found some really nice ones, but since the whole point here is to save money and do more for myself, a binder and a hole punch will work just fine. I think keeping a detailed log will make next season go way smoother. Let’s face it, I need all the help I can get. Mandee Ellis is a reporter at The Star News. Contact her at Mandee@centralwinews.com.