Planting Lettuce

Russell came up with a great idea to plant some lettuce in one of our pots out front. As he put it, I'm tired of throwing out manky lettuce. So, Lyra and I took one of our larger pots and divided it into 3rd - each third has a slightly different variety of lettuce growing. So far, we're having positive results. She enjoys watering each day and checking on the progress. Lettuce is nice in that it offers instant rewards when looking for sprouts. She was particularly interesting in seeing that the little seed pod stayed on the top of the plant for a day or two until the leaves popped it off. Lyra's very excited to eat the lettuce - which is part of what growing veg is all about. So, in 2-3 weeks, we should be eating salads from our little garden.

When we move back to the US, I'm hoping that Russell and I can transform the Eastern side of our house into a veg garden. We've got the massive rhubarb back there and enjoy harvesting that for pies or ice cream. We've had the prairie going on there, but I love the idea of getting some veg planted. It's not the most sunny side of the house, but I'm sure we can get a few things to grow. We may have to plant a few tomato plants on the other side of the house - which we've done once or twice with good success.

I read about the Obamas planting a vegetable garden at the White House. This is the first vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden. I don't know why, but I'm surprised by that. Surely the chefs would have appreciated access to some things fresh from the garden. The plans that I saw on line are quite extensive.

My grandparents would have given their eye teeth for this much space for a garden. I can just imagine now the days and days devoted to putting up vegetables for the winter.

Of course the Obamas didn't mention anything about canning. I wonder if they'll now start a new canning trend along with their gardening trend.