tyrus wrote:Have no idea what to do with it, except eat salads for the next couple of days. Three days ago I did this same harvest and gave away three bags.

People rarely think of using lettuce as a cooked vegetable, but it works very well, and uses lots more lettuce than salad. You can simply saute it as you would spinach, or use it in all sorts of recipes:

Pain de Laitue Dauphinois

Lettuce soup

Lettuce souffle and other lettuce recipes

BLT cocktail

My buddy Chen Weihang—a Shanghainese—used to stir fry lettuce all the time. It's surprizingly good that way, with a bit of garlic and topped off with a touch of sesame oil.

Geo

And here's Janet C's recipe for lettuce salsa.

Those are some great ideas. Thanks much.

Bye the bye LAZ, if you go up thread from Janet C's recipe that you link to, you'll see how the discussion focussed on Peruvian green sauce. At that point I didn't the secret herb. I finally found it, Tagetes minuta, available here.

Geo

Another week and time for an update. The garden is going well and I think the heat has a bunch to do with it. The wind didn't help matters - especially for my onions - but I installed wind guards and they did the job for the heavy winds. I felt it was safe to remove them yesterday and let those plants breathe. Anyway, here's my recap in pictures (plants went in the first week of May):

Overall:


Zucchini:


Zucchini starting to fruit:


Romaine (probably close to bolting):


Broccoli:


Tomatoes:


Onions:


Ichiban Eggplant flower:

Wow

your zucchini is way ahead of mine. Looking great!

ill get around to taking some shots of mine soon too.

Thanks for the note and please do post the pictures. That's my favorite thing about these posts is to document the growth and see how other people are doing things.

And suddenly, there was red in my Earthbox. Yum.

Just a quick update to the roof garden. Things are progressing nicely. I'm seeing the first signs of summer on the vines - little tomatoes, zucchini blossoms, and ready-to-harvest broccoli. I thought my cucumbers were going to be out grown by the zucchini in the same box but sure enough, they've climbed their way to the top. The lettuce is still going and has not bolted yet. I'm starting to cut off the whole head though and will replace with some herbs next week. Here are some pics:

ok ok we're all madly jealous of your garden

... i was at ikea over the weekend and picked up two "self watering" pots they sell... i don't know if these are new or if they've been around. they're basically a white pot on wheels (made of plastic).. the bottom has a grate then the dirt goes on that, then there's a tube that attaches to the grate to fill the water from the top.

i haven't really pondered the directions to see if they recommend covering the top with plastic or anything...

but they were $20. earthbox almost seems like a better deal, but it was between this and a regular pot and we were on a time/budget/everything crunch... the idea of self watering isn't that appealing to me here but these will be in a hot, at times unattended for a few days area on a houseboat so we thought we'd give them a shot.

dddane wrote:ok ok we're all madly jealous of your garden

Sorry if this these posts are annoying - I was kind of thinking that anyway. This is just a really good forum for me to track the progress of the garden. Since I post almost in "real time," I can look back and see when I planted, harvested, etc. Plus it let's me look at what I was thinking at a particular time.

... i was at ikea over the weekend and picked up two "self watering" pots they sell... i don't know if these are new or if they've been around. they're basically a white pot on wheels (made of plastic).. the bottom has a grate then the dirt goes on that, then there's a tube that attaches to the grate to fill the water from the top.

i haven't really pondered the directions to see if they recommend covering the top with plastic or anything...

but they were $20. earthbox almost seems like a better deal, but it was between this and a regular pot and we were on a time/budget/everything crunch... the idea of self watering isn't that appealing to me here but these will be in a hot, at times unattended for a few days area on a houseboat so we thought we'd give them a shot.

I may have to check these out. I've become a big fan in the first 50 days of using these earthboxes. The potting mix stays moist and the plants seem to love them. The only issues I see are keeping them watered enough. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is letting them dry out, so you may want to be careful with the house boat scenario. If the instructions aren't great on your pots, go to the earthbox homepage and download their instructions. They have great advice and people have been using their methodology in their homemade boxes as well. Things to remember: use potting MIX, a fertilizer STRIP, use the planting schemes for which type of vegetable, assemble the box correctly at your first planting (wetting the soil as you build, mixing in the lime, placement of the fertilizer) and cover the box with plastic (this helps keep the moisture in - you can use a plastic garbage bag as well). Sounds like a lot but it's really easy and all you have to do is water and wait. No digging, weeding, etc. Good luck.

Well, I'm a little behind you guys this year but here are pics from my homemade "earthboxes" from May. Will post some new ones soon as everything has finally taken off this last week or so. Got my first harvest of lettuce, radishes, and strawberries this week but you won't see that in the earthboxes. I'm growing those in normal containers.

Mid may, just planted, with my pride and joy the Big Green Egg =)


How I planted seedlings in my EB's. Not sure if its the best way to do it, but I partially covered with plastic until they got hearty then thinned them out and cut holes through a new sheet of plastic. Painful process but it worked fine.


Early June. Framework for the netting built. Not much growth due to the cold weather at this point.
From left to right, Zucchini/Patty pan squash, 6 types of peppers, Tomatoes, Bush Beans, all Heirloom varieties.


Will post more impressive pics in the next day or two since everything is about 3x the size now =)

Your rooftop garden looks great! Nice job. I'm extremely jealous of the big green egg. I've thought of getting one but the idea of a live fire on a wooden deck has scared me off of that idea. I think the BGE is much safer though.

Within no time, your plants will be out of control. I have six broccoli plants that I can't keep up with - heads the size of mini basketballs. I'm going to hook up with the other rooftop growers and drop off some veggies this weekend - lettuces, broccoli, and maybe a little zucchini. It's like a mini CSA or community garden co-op. I just can't wait for the tomatoes and peppers...

Although these updates may be annoying to some, others have asked me to continue with the progress. There has been a lot of talk on the forum recently about CSAs and Farmer's Markets and I wanted to add that the average, novice gardener could also supplement their produce consumption (and food bill) by growing their own. I don't have a yard but I have a roof that doubles as a baking platform in the summer - which is perfect for gardening. This is my first year growing a garden. I planted May 4th and some have told me that it was too early but with the self-irrigated container system, I think we may be able to extend our growing season a little.

My goal is to have three stages of plantings for next year - early spring, summer, and fall and see if I can extend the season long enough with homemade add-ons to the boxes, like wind guards or mini-greenhouse boxes. I've been sharing ideas with other rooftop growers as well. If we continue to have success, we would like to share the knowledge to community programs or individuals - especially those that live in areas that have a lack of fresh produce.

So far this year, I've had a rotation of lettuce (gave away about half of it), six heads of broccoli (gave away 2 heads, froze 2 heads, ate 2 heads), spring onions, zucchini, eggplant, and a few strawberries. At the moment, the eggplant and zucchini are taking off, with multiple fruits on each plant; a second crop of strawberries have come in, peppers are fruiting, the broccoli has shoots coming up daily, onions are getting bigger, and the tomatoes must have over 50-60 fruits among the six plants. The lettuce has been replaced by fast growing basil and parsley as well as thyme and rosemary.

I've been able to supplement my grocery spend considerably while having the freshest food possible. If I'm not growing it, I'll pick it up at the farmer's market - the grocery store gets the last shot and least of my money. Here are some recent pictures:

Overall:


Tomato clusters:


Broccoli shoots with head removed:


Ichiban Eggplant:


First cutting of zucchini:


Dinner the other night:

Thanks for the update, I really covet your tomatoes. I am using containers on our deck, lots of flowers but unfortuneately no fruit on our tomato plants. At least the peppers are performing!!

what type of tomatoes are those ? They look pretty large already !

tyrus wrote:Although these updates may be annoying to some, others have asked me to continue with the progress. ...

tyrus-

The size of my deck and extent of my green thumb limit me to a couple of herb plants and a lot of impatiens. Please continue to post your progress. I personally find it very interesting and am jealous of your bounty!

-The GP

OK, after perusing this thread I have some serious lettuce envy. I am a total novice gardner who eats a lot of salads in the summer. I planted a packet of Summer Lettuce Mix from The Cook's Gardner in a plastic deck box w/ drainage about 6 weeks ago and started dreaming of cheap, bountiful salads. I'm watering, I'm fertilizing, I'm making very little progress. Pic below is where I've been stuck for about 10 days. Box gets full afternoon sun. Am I just being too impatient? Did I plant too late? Is my cheap Lowes planter just no match for the magical Earth Boxes?



Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks - Lynn

I'd like to try to post a photo of my rooftop garden, full of my homemade earthboxes. If I get it to show up, I'll be shocked. The preview just says "Image".



We've got more at our new blog http://greenroofgrowers.blogspot.com/

For what it's worth, I think a better name is SIPs, as in sub-irrigated planters.

Hopefully this shows up..

Ed, thanks for taking the time to clean up my little mess.

No problem. If you're using firefox, when you're on the Picasa page (what you originally linked to) if you right click on the actual image and choose "Copy Image Location" it will give you the address you need to use here on LTH.

LynnB wrote:OK, after perusing this thread I have some serious lettuce envy. I am a total novice gardner who eats a lot of salads in the summer. I planted a packet of Summer Lettuce Mix from The Cook's Gardner in a plastic deck box w/ drainage about 6 weeks ago and started dreaming of cheap, bountiful salads. I'm watering, I'm fertilizing, I'm making very little progress. Pic below is where I've been stuck for about 10 days. Box gets full afternoon sun. Am I just being too impatient? Did I plant too late? Is my cheap Lowes planter just no match for the magical Earth Boxes?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks - Lynn

My initial thought is that it's just too hot but "summer lettuce" should do something. My lettuce grew like crazy in the cool spring but as soon as it got hot, it bolted and got bitter. I'll plant more in the fall when the weather cools off again.

I wouldn't say the Earthbox, or more appropriately, SIPs are "magical" but they do really well for us urban gardeners. I tried planting some things a couple of years ago in regular planters and it just didn't work. The regular planters would just dry out over time and the production was minimal. This is my first go with a SIP and the production has been great - lettuce/broccoli in the spring; zucchini/eggplant in early summer; peppers/tomatoes a couple of weeks away; with samplings of strawberry and onions.

I wish I had better advice for you. Best of luck and I hope you'll be eating salads in no time...

Yeah earthboxes/SIPs really help with a couple serious problems that urban gardeners (and in particular, rooftop gardeners) face. Containers don't have access to the moisture that is deep in the ground. They dry out fast because of both evaporation and wind. They also allow us to grow more plants in less space.

That being said, I have had a lot of success with certain veggies in regular containers. I'm sure the yield would increase with a SIP, but have had great results in normal planters with radishes, lettuce, beets/Beet greens, herbs, bush beans, and strawberries. Tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, except maybe for a few dwarf varieties and maybe some of the cherry tomato plants are really not worth it in my experience. Tomatoes in particular have a real problem with the generally uneven watering they get in a normal container.

I wanted to share a bit of knowledge I found resulting from a problem I had with my EB/SIP tomatoes this year.

I started noticing blossom end rot on some of my early tomatoes. If you have never seen blossom end rot it basically looks like a blackened and sometimes sunken legion at the end of the tomato where the blossom originally was. This is generally caused by a lack of calcium which can be a result of simply not enough calcium in the soil, or it can be a result of plant stress from uneven watering, very high temps, or over fertilizing resulting in too-fast growth which causes the calcium to not get to the fruit.

The EB planting guide suggests that when you set up your boxes, that you add dolomite or hydrated lime to the top few inches of your potting soil. I looked all over for the stuff and couldn't find it. What I ended up with was "garden lime" which is a pelletized version. I added this to the soil like the EB instructions said, but I still ended up with the Blossom end rot. I'm no expert, but I think the pelletized version of lime is just not dissolving quickly enough, possibly as a result of getting no watering from above.

The solution that seems to be working, which I read about on the EB forums is to use 1 cup of hydrated lime ( which I finally found at a Potash brothers Ace hardware after calling nearly 20 stores around town) mixed with 1 gallon of water and added to the feeding tube. I will keep you posted but for now seems to have stopped my Blossom end rot.

The old-fashioned treatment for blossom-end rot is epsom salts. A more enlightened quick-fix is Tums + epsom salts: Tums has the calcium and the epsom salts, for whatever reason, seem to potentiate the Ca uptake. Crush and dissolve in water, obviously.

See also: http://forum.earthbox.com/index.php?topic=186.msg1018

Geo

Yes, I'd heard epsom salts and lime...I think the magnesium helps the plant process the calcium. I'm going to have to start spraying with bordeax mixture (hydrated lime & horticultural copper sulfate; I can send you the recipe I was given by the extension office) and I wonder if it will also help with blossom end rot which I occasionally have a problem with during rainy summers.

Mhays, what fungal problem on the tomatoes are you spraying the Bordeaux mixture for?

I don't think that the vines will pick up much lime from this foliar spray--at least I've never heard it talked about in grapes, which are in many places blue with Bordeaux most of the season!

Geo

Septoria Leaf Spot - I suppose that's true; I was thinking the overspray might help...