This morning, I pulled the rest of the spinach plants that were bolting and several romaine lettuce that seemed near the end. This will free up some squares to plant Fall crops. I also harvested the first head of broccoli. It is only about three inches across. I didn't want to wait too long and miss the opportunity.
This past weekend, the extra lettuce that sprouted in the 8 places where I placed seed in frame 5 was transplanted. This gives us 26 young lettuce plants instead of the originally planned eight (see frame 5). It is one of the great things about SFG that when more plants come up than fit in a square, one can easily transplant them elsewhere. The soft, uncompacted soil ("Mel's Mix") is the key.
Regarding lettuce plants, we currently have 33 mature plants that have been providing cuttings every 2-4 days for the past several weeks (along with 9 spinach, 6 chard and 9 kale plants). This seems to be a good number of plants for our family of four, allowing us to have salad with dinners and healthy sandwiches and salads for lunch. It sounds like a lot of plants, but 32 lettuce plants will fit in eight squares or one-half of a single garden frame.
We are easily saving more than $10 a week with produce from the garden which has replaced the lettuce, celery, carrots and asparagus that we had been buying every week at the grocery market.
Surprisingly, the kale is sweet enough that we don't mind eating it raw in a salad. It is also good lightly sauteed with olive oil and garlic.
I have posted a before and after harvest image of frame two from this morning so that you can see how I trimmed some cabbage leaves to allow room for the lettuce and kale to grow and also to see how the lettuce and kale are harvested, leaving just a few smaller leaves to mature for the next harvest.
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