The Sentell Garden Blog

There is a happy symmetry to the fact that translucent clamshell boxes used to package gourmet salad greens also make ideal containers for growing lettuce indoors. To get the boxes ready for duty, use the tip of a stout knife to make 8 or 9 gashes in the bottom of each one. Then add 2 inches of moist potting soil before planting a pinch (about 25) lettuce seeds, barely covering them with soil. After generously spritzing the surface with water from a pump-spray bottle, pop on the tops and slip the boxes under your grow light, or in any warm, bright spot.

Five days later, when the seeds are up and growing, remove the tops and place them under the boxes, so they become watering trays. The soil usually stays nicely moist if you fill the trays with water every day. By the way, don’t try to remove the labels from the lids. Hot water will warp them, especially if they’re made from cornstarch.

You can let your boxes of lettuce bask in the sun from a south-facing window on bright days, but they will be happy to spend most of their time under the light. Keep the lights on for about 12 hours a day, like from 7 in the morning until 7 at night.

The first cutting is ready in 3 to 4 weeks. By holding the boxes sideways, you can clip the leaves right into a colander while keeping the growing crowns intact. The plants will be ready to cut again in about 2 weeks.

If you want to use the clamshell boxes to start another crop, you can lift out the mat of seedlings and transplant it to a larger container. As days get warmer in the spring, you can start lettuce and other salad greens in clamshell boxes and transplant the mats into a cold frame or plastic-covered tunnel.

Have you tried similar tricks at your house to grow good things to eat indoors in late winter? Please share your stories in the comments section below.

via Grow a Quick Crop of Lettuce Indoors.

First, we had to clear out the ground where the compost bin would be. Then once we did that, we placed the slats in the ground, but it was uneven. We got some bricks to make it level and nailed some boards across the top to keep them all together. Now there are 3 bins, the first one we will put the compost in. Then we will turn it over into the next bin; it will keep going back and forth until it’s done, and we will put it in the third bin.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  We built a 3 bin compost system tonight using left over palettes that somebody had given us.  While not the prettiest thing in the world, we didn’t have to buy anything and it seems strangely appropriate to recycle food stuffs in a bin made from recycled materials.

Tessa and Dad cleared the space, found the bracing boards, nailed it all together, and added some composted horse manure into each bin.  Our friend, Scott, helped by digging out some of the soil so the bin would sit level.

Molly has taken it upon herself to be the composting queen.  She took a small bucket with a lid, write ‘Compost’ on it and set it in the kitchen.  She wants to be the one to collect the indoor scraps (greens) and add them to the outdoor bin each night.  She thought she might get out of the ‘doing the dishes’ chore this way, but alas, no.  They kind of go together, after all.  As she clears of plates and serving dishes, it is a natural opportunity to collect compost-able scraps.  Then she just has to walk them out to the garden.

We grew tomatoes on stands this year….great idea, no weeds, but didn’t water them enough. Next year we’ll add a drip line.

Materials:

• 3 left over 2x6s
• A few strips of cedar from my kayak-building project
• Screws and Nails
• A recycled piece of plywood for the bottom
• White Exterior paint
• Mel’s Mix (1/3 Vermiculite, 1/3 Peat Moss, 1/3 Compost)

This box started its life as a 4×4 Square Foot Garden box, but morphed into this 2×8 raised box after Lise agreed that it would be helpful to have herbs closer to the house.

Our goal is to grow the majority of our own food.

We start with just over an acre of land, several years of gardening experience, and a supportive community.

We’ve talked about moving onto a farm, moving off the grid, etc.. It hit me the other day that we don’t need to wait for ‘someday’ to start living parts of our dream today. Our community and our family still has a lot to learn about planning, growing, and storing food. We can do that with the tools we have at our disposal.

This blog will be a record of our journey.