Even though my husband and I grow and preserve an abundance of food for the family, I still buy lettuce in the winter. We do have all sorts of canned and frozen veggies to choose from during the fall, winter and spring. Since they are already prepared most of the time, there’s not much work in serving them either! But, we also like to have that bit of crunchy freshness with dinner every night. This winter, I have been experimenting on a small scale with different ways to produce a cold weather crop of salad fixings for our table.
So far my little hoop garden covered with agribon is working out. When I pulled back the agribon after a few days of rain I was greeted with the site of some healthy looking lettuce, and even one onion starter from the kitchen that is holding on. I wish that I had begun a little sooner and planted a few more starters!
One thing I have noticed about the agribon is that it doesn’t let much rain through. It seems like the water just rolls down the sides. So underneath, it was much drier than I expected it to be. In the future I will make sure to water no matter the weather. I have some more lettuce starters in what I call my salad bowl, that I am going to put in the hoop garden on the next good planting day.
Next winter I will plan on having two little hoop gardens instead of one, and I will begin sooner with more starters. My goal, of course, will be to have fresh salad every night with dinner!
