February Lettuce

Gardeners at the Campbell Community Garden are encouraged to grow  the year-round. Some years winter gardens are surprisingly fruitful, other years they are quite the challenge.

The garden covered in snow, February 7, 2014

The 2013 - 2014 winter has been a challenging one! We had a big freeze in early December that wiped out our peas just as they were starting to set pods, the row was covered with fleece, but that just wasn't enough protection. The lettuce bed was covered with plastic, so it was a bit warmer, however the cold killed most all of our lettuce transplants (donated to us by Yard 'n Garden Land ). The lettuce seedlings sown mid October came through just fine.

Crispy Winter Greens, seeds donated to us by Renee's Garden

In anticipation of the big freeze of February we cut the surviving lettuce to donate to Esther's Pantry food bank on February 5th, our first donation of 2014! While the donation was small, it was outstanding: 2 pounds of pristine lettuce greens, 1 pound of cilantro, and 1 pound of assorted dried herbs (from the fall garden).

Cilantro, grown from seed saved in the garden.

Mix of cut lettuce leaves, seeds donated to us by Renee's Garden, grown organically and donated to a food bank (Esther's Pantry, just over one mile away from the garden!)