Lettuce and Herb Salad Mix

Today I picked some of the herbs in the garden that make excellent compliments for a lettuce salad: basil, mint, parsley, arugula, green onions and chives. All these herbs add zest and flavor to a salad. The problem is the lettuce is not up yet. With all this rain the lettuce is starting to grow but nowhere near the size for a healthy salad. So for now this herb mix needs to wait or be used with store bought lettuce. Since all the herbs above grow back again when picked we will probably use them before the garden lettuce is up. When it comes up we can pick the complementary herbs again. In the garden as in life it is usually beter to use what you have than wait for something else to grow up. This is even true for the DMZ garden. Now that Dawn and Marna are connected with Growing Power and have invested so much in the DMZ garden it is time for me to diminish my role. Except for getting the worm condo up and running my role for the present is to work with youth to build the rest of the beds. It is hard to accept a diminished role but I always preached that once things got going, like the lettuce sprouting up, it was time for me to step back and move on. Practicing this preaching seems harder with the DMZ than with other organizations and groups I have helped to build, like community organizations and youth groups, and then let go. I will for the foreseeable future still help with the DMZ garden and record in pictures and words its progress, but Marna and Dawn have made it their own and now just need me for some sweat labor. We got a load of compost today from Growing Power so there are a number of raised beds to go up.

Speaking of sweat labor, in my home model garden today I was able to get some more plants in before the rains came pouring down big down. Today at the commercial plant store’s once-a-month sale I actually found a few outside herbs, parsley and thyme. Then driving up North Avenue to a nearby garden store I found some inexpensive tomato plants, which I need since the ones I planted inside, did not, for the most part, make it outside. I also purchased a few eggplant plants at the garden store and finally realized that it is best and less expensive to just purchase seeds, like lettuce, for direct planting outside, and purchase the rest, tomatoes and eggplants, as they are needed. This is also true for the growing power box, plants that I can grow directly from seed, like arugula or salad mix, is best to plant in the box. Probably my ‘green thumb’ is too thick-headed for the delicate balance of growing from seeds inside and transplanting outside. Also my focus needs to be on plants that I know I can grow well, like to eat and are not less expensive when purchased at the store. For example, take cilantro that I use in dried form and leaf form for cooking. Cilantro plants do not grow well in this climate and once they are picked they are gone. Whereas I can purchase a jar of dried cilantro for the year or enough good leaves for the year for a few bucks. Dawn and Marna are somewhat new at the home garden business and are trying all kinds of plants like watermelons. Good luck to them. However, they have a shot at it since they purchased the watermelon from Growing Power and did get it from seed.

In the garden store today I saw an Italian hanging planter, with tomato, basil and parsley plants in it for $24. I did not purchase it but when I got home I got out my one-buck planter from the dollar store and put some basil, parsley and tomato plants in it, about $3 or $4 dollars worth. It looks like the one in the garden store but with homemade soil in the planter it should grow better. I will keep you updated of what’s up with the Italian planter. In the meanwhile let us hope the lettuce is up soon.

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