Lettuce Begin Planting, Please

When we sit down and do all the garden planning for the year, we are sure to label each section with not only the plants required, but also the dates that seeds are started and transplants are set out. Then I add those dates into iCal and set up alerts, so that we know what we need ahead of time for each weekend's task. This makes staying organized and on top of our seasonal rotations a snap. 

This weekend had just one item on gardening our to-do list:

Alas, this was not to be. The original idea was that, at the very earliest and with good luck, we could get seeds for spring greens started outdoors in a cold frame the first weekend of March. So we added it to the calendar and forgot about it.

As you know, this winter has been a beast in the Northeast, and we are nowhere near ready to plant, even in cold frames:

As you can see, there is still ice on the ground, both inside the cold frame and out, and there's plenty of snow in the background as well. The only reason this bed isn't still covered entirely is because last weekend Kirk took advantage of a warm day and cleared the snow off the bed and popped an extra cold frame in place, hoping to take advantage of the sunlight to help thaw this section out more quickly.

Yeah, right. And then all week our high temperatures never even got above 30. It's expected to be that way all this coming week as well, so there's n real hope of getting anything started in those col frames before mid-March, it would seem.

Not to be deterred in the quest for fresh greens, Kirk started some head lettuce indoors in individual coir starter cells:

Each of the cells is in a watering tray (which Kirk cleverly made from the box they came in, wrapped in foil) covered by a molded plastic top. He set out half butter head and half romaine, and hopefully they'll get a nice start inside over the next few weeks until we can get them in the ground in that cold frame. Maybe they won't be too far behind after all.

We are definitely OVER this winter.

Too bad it doesn't seem to be over with us yet.