Monday, May 25, 2015

First Harvest


This afternoon I went into the Kitchen Garden with scissors in hand and proceeded to cut my very first harvest of the year. I honestly could have done this a week ago, but the time got away from me. And my how the greens have enjoyed this past week's mild and wet weather! Just a week ago I could still easily make out each individual lettuce plant. But one week later they have all grown together to form a sea of fresh green.

This is a planting of Heirloom Cutting Lettuce from Renee's Garden. It is a mix of 5 varieties; "Speckled Troutback", "Blush Butter Cos", "Red Ruffled Oak", Devil's Tongue", and "Sucrine". I can make out 4 different varieties in the mix but I don't know my lettuces well enough to clearly see all five.


This one is definitely the "Speckled Troutback".


I am guessing on this one. Perhaps the "Blush Butter Cos" ?


And this one must be the "Red Ruffled Oak".


This is a pretty solid green one that is growing in a fairly tight bunch for a leaf lettuce.


As this is my very first attempt at growing leaf lettuce, I am very pleased. Any seed from Renee's Garden is always great, especially her mixes. You always get such an even blend of all the promised varieties. We will be eating well from this small raised bed for weeks.


Next door to the lettuce is another raised bed. This one was planted with "Charger" Spinach and "Red Planet" Radish. They too have enjoyed the wet, warm weather and have really grown in the past 10 days.


This is also the first time that I have ever grown Spinach. It is doing really well although a few of the leaves are getting munched on. I have looked all over but can't find the guilty party. Thankfully the damage is minimal.


The radish look great but need to be harvested soon! They are as big as I would want them and will be come hot if they are allowed to get too much bigger.

After I harvested enough for dinner the next two nights, I cleaned and weighted the bounty;
  • Lettuce Mix - 4.8 oz
  • "Charger" Spinach - 2.5 oz.
  • "Red Planet" Radish - 7.9 oz.

6 comments:

Margaret said...

What lovely lettuce! I'm quite late with my lettuce this year - in fact I only transplanted out my seedlings today. Hopefully they don't bolt with all the hot weather we will be getting!

Daphne Gould said...

Gorgeous lettuce. And those radishes look lovely. I keep looking for a round variety that does well here and I like to eat.

Mindy said...

Wowee, that's a lot of lettuce! I didn't grow any this year, darn it. I pulled the remaining radishes yesterday. It was my first time having success with them and they were delicious.

Lou@RainbowChard said...

Yummy, the lettuce and radishes look great! I love the speckledy lettuce.

Lani Christensen said...

Looks great. How do you like using row covers?

Carole West said...

Your harvest looks amazing. I've had to stop planting due to all the rain so now I'm getting ready to plan for fall Planting. This is when I normally plant my lettuce and spinach. Great pictures enjoyed!

Carole @ Garden Up Green