Trouble with Wildlife

This was the lettuce bed early Friday evening after planting.  We have had bad luck with lettuce the last few years.  This year I sowed the seeds a bit more thinly than in the past.  I didn't spend too much time because we have had such bad luck when I have taken much care I figured this year if I didn't worry about it too much maybe we will get a good lettuce harvest again.  But at the same time I tried to space the rows appropriately, spread the seeds and covered carefully with a thin layer of compost and manure.

When we returned on Sunday afternoon this was the bed trampled by some sort of animal.  It seems that it might have been a deer but it's hard to tell, the tracks weren't clear.  Of course it could have been an overzealous squirrel too.

It seems that at least once a year after planting seeds one of my beds gets trampled by the local wildlife.  I attempted to gently move the soil back how it was, but we will have to see how badly the planted seeds were displaced once they start coming in.

Starting Over

My spring lettuce bed was a big flop so I ripped it all out.  I raked in 40lbs of quality soil and started over.  I planted multiple types of lettuces, cilantro and dill.  We will see what happens.

Questions

I can not figure out the cause to some of my garden failures this spring.  I am honestly asking these questions hoping someone out there will know what might be the problem.  I'd like to not continue having the same issues over and over as it seems I am having.

Why are my lettuces that were planted on March 17th, 2.5 months ago still tenny tiny?  This is the second year in a row that this has happened.  They are in a different spot this year than last year, and this is a brand new bed.  Unless it's the source of my soil/composted manure I am at a loss for what the problem is.

Why are some of my seedlings turning red and dying off?  This happened earlier in the spring and is happening again.

2011 Lettuce, Radish, Carrot, Parsnip Reviews

Lettuce- I grew the following varities: Black Seeded Simpson, New Red Fire, Beleah Rose, Red Sails, Arugula, Baby Romaine, Rouge d'Hiver, Buttercrunch, Q's Specialty Mix, Space Spinach, New Zealand Spinach, Vegetable Amaranth, and Mache.  All were disappointing.  I don't know if I got my lettuce in too late or not but by the time they got large enough to pick all the lettuce was bitter.  In the Fall it was the same story.  Some of the following varieties completely fell flat and didn't even germinate.  I will try a few again but overall I am doing a major overhaul in picking lettuces this year.  We eat lots of salad and we want lots of lettuce to pick next year.

Radishes - I grew the following varieties: Cherry Belle, Purple Plum, and French Breakfast.  I loved the colors this year.  I'm not sure if I left them in the ground too long but they all seemed to be a bit hot and too spicy for my liking.  They were all also smaller than I would like so I am going to try different varities.

Carrots - This year I tried Red Cored Chatenay and Cosmic Purple.  I was seduced by the colors of these carrots and thought I would give them a try.  They were ok but I wasn't in love with their flavor.  And for the amount of work it takes to carefully seed them and thin them I'm not sure if I will include them next year.  I really want to try some winter varieties that are supposed to get sweeter with frosts.

Hollow Crown Parsnips - This was my first year for parsnips and I loved growing them.  Many were much larger than I anticipated and I delighted in having a late fall harvest.  Some of the roots were weirdly shaped and mangled but overall I was very pleased with them and will definitely be planting them again.

Fall Lettuces

This past Spring was not a good season for my lettuces.  I am hoping to have better luck this Fall but I struggle with planting times.  I don't want to get it in too early while its too hot but it also needs more time to grow as the days get shorter.

 

The arugula is coming in really well.  However the couple of days of 90 degree weather we had among the cooler days has made is super spicy.  Almost too spicy to eat.

 The other lettuces that were planted at the same time had spotty germination and are coming in much slower.

I just planted mache and spinach in the front bed.  It has yet to germinate but I am hoping to get lettuces into the winter and try overwintering spinach.

Lettuce

Goodbye Spring lettuce, hello Summer.  The lettuce is going bitter and I have Summer varieties growing but nothing ready to pick.  With the first day of official Summer being tomorrow it is time to move on.

This is just some of the lettuce picked.  I have also been picking plenty of herbs but I normally just take what I need before cooking and none of it gets recorded.

Arugula

The arugula never got large enough to where I thought I could start to harvest it.  And now it has gotten too hot and it has bolted.  I have decided to let it be and go to seed hoping that maybe it will self sow and I might get some Fall or next year an early Spring crop.

Stalled Lettuce

In January and February as I was planning the garden I was dreaming of all the fresh from the garden salads we were going to have this year.  Last year the letucce was one of the easiest plants and I planned on planting at least 3x as much this year for lunches and dinners. 

I sowed all of the Spring lettuce seeds on April 12th  and below is how well they are doing today after 43 days of growing.  It is still going to be awhile before we get to harvest anything.  I did get my lettuce in later this year due to the excessive wet weather.  But we should by now have been harvesting lettuce.  I am blamming the stunted growth on the lack of Sun we have been having.  But maybe last year I just had beginners luck with our bountiful lettuce.  Over the weekend I went ahead and sowed our heat tolerant varieties for the Summer, maybe I will get some salads yet.

The lettuce is still small.

Most of the spinach seedlings have died off.  The plant in the bottom right is the only one doing ok.  All of the other rows of lettuce heads are still tiny.

Some of the leaves have purple spotting (as you can see in the middle).  I have no idea what that means but I know it's not normal.

Whoops

I posted about trying to allow the lettuce to rebound from the frost.  Well I should have just cut it all then because after putting the cover back on it snowed and the lettuce did not make it.  Since then it's snowed two more times and at this point I am just going to allow it be and turn it back into the soil in the spring. 

I was testing the abilities of the row cover and so from that perspective I succeeded in realizing the limits that the row cover can only protect from frosts.

Frosty Lettuce

The past few weeks life got a bit busy and I neglected to put the row cover back on top of the lettuce to protect it from some good frosts we have been having.  I figured the lettuce was a goner and thought it was about time to hang up the gardening gloves for the year.  But surprisingly enough the lettuce has sprung back and I made sure to get it covered before the couple of inches of snow we had this weekend.  I haven't had time to check it yet and see how it did.

Below you can see some signs of damage of the frost.  Some leaves have burnt edges or discoloration but most of the foliage is fine.  I have trimmed back most of the damaged pieces and will harvest a bunch of lettuce this week so see if the taste is at all affected.



Weekend Gardening

It has finally started to get cold around here and we have had some light frost.  Not wanting to take my chances any longer I finally cut off all of the remaining green tomatoes that were large enough.  I also harvested some basil and chives since neither will really stand up to a frost.  The sage, thyme and rosemary will continue to thrive well past Thanksgiving.

Some of our lettuce is finally doing well since our temperatures have finally cooled for good.  The back half of the lettuce has a couple seedlings but mainly has flailed.  My front half is coming in nice and I was able to cut some for salads this week.  Tomorrow I am going to order some row cover and hopefully get it before hard frost sets in.  I am hoping to get the lettuce going well enough with the row cover that we don't have to buy greens for awhile.

The cilantro is coming in slowly but surely, while the radishes continue to thrive.  I should mulch them soon but I'm not sure if it will happen.

Dissapointed

My seedlings have not been doing well.  The arugula and radishes are the only 2 items doing OK.  My cilantro has just started to peek out of the soil.  But the other 8 varieties of lettuce have done absolutely nothing.  I was planning on replanting today but for the next 5-7 days we are going back into the high 80s and 90s.  Being my first year for Fall crops I was excited but nothing will grow in this heat!