Just because the weather outside stinks, doesn’t mean you have to stop gardening all together. I started this flat of Italian basil back on October 30th, and all the sudden it’s gone gangbusters. Right now the basil is about 5-inches high, and we have been using basil leaves here and there in a few dinner dishes. Not to shabby for gardening in December if you ask me.
2 weeks ago I started some butterhead lettuce indoors. I guess I didn’t think the whole thing through because now I’m not sure what I’m suppose to do with it. Should I re-pot the lettuce and move it out to the greenhouse, or just leave it in the flat and pick the leaves off a little at a time?
The temps are suppose to dip into the 30’s this weekend so I’m not too sure if I should be moving it outside or not. What do you think? Should I just thin it out and grow a few heads under the grow lights, or move the lettuce outside to the greenhouse?
I could you your advise.
~Mavis
Elaine Standley says
Leave it! I had moved mine to the green house and 7 hours of 30 degree weather killed them 🙁
Mavis says
Eeeek!
Kimberly R says
If you have heaters in the green house then go for it otherwise it might kill em.
I also wanted to let you know I gave you a shout out on my about me part of the blog. You’ve truly inspired many!
Mavis says
🙂 Wow, Thanks Kimberly. 🙂
Anne says
Here’s a link to a couple in Georgia who successfully grow greens in an unheated greenhouse in December. They report temperatures as low as 8 deg. F. It looks like they put the plants under row cover inside the greenhouse.
http://mehaffeyfarm.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/december-21-journal-growing-greens-in-an-unheated-greenhouse/
God luck which ever way you decide to go.
~Anne
Vicki S says
Mavis, Put your lettuces in the greenhouse, and use row covers over it also. I do not have a green house, only greenhouse plastic and very large buckets and cover the plants up at night with frost row covers, several of them. I am in zone 5 and have successfully grown spinach on the south side of my home, with protection, and kept alive at temps of -20. But this was with heavy protection, and a lot of experimenting.
It can be done.
Maggie says
Mavis, I would get bales of straw, shape them in a rectangle. Add some dirt and compost etc…what ever you prefer. Plant the lettuce inside the hay bales and just lay an couple of old windows, a sheet of plexy glass, or just a sheet of plastic when the weather threatens them. If it really gets cold, I would through an old blanket. Leave it off when the weather is nice.
This is a temporary “cold frame”. You can reuse it for a few seasons.
When the straw starts to rot use it to mulch the garden and shade out weeds.