As I mentioned in my post about starting the parsley, last year seed starting began on St. Patrick’s Day. This year I’m more experienced, ambitious, and have more space for growing and so things got started even earlier. In a somewhat random nod to this new tradition I started part of a packet of lettuce seeds in the “windowsill greenhouse” (pictured below) on St. Valentine’s Day.
Lettuce seeds sprouting on the windowsill
If these stick to schedule and are ready to be transplanted before the middle of April they will probably never end up in the garden but instead will go into a window box and provide the occasional salad garnish for meals in the city. I’m a bit disappointed that the germination rate seems to be so spotty. I started with the cells on the right with bigger seeds (this is mixed packet of different lettuce seeds) and one seed per cell. By the time I got to the cells on the left and the much smaller seeds laziness kicked in and I just poured four or five seeds into each cell. Do bigger seeds take longer to germinate?
February 25, 2009 at 8:48 pm
So when will you include the wine pairing recommendations! Maybe not for the lettuce but it would fit with the burger and putine posts.
February 27, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Great idea, from now on every recipe will come with a drink pairing recommendation. For the poutine we were ham-strung by the fact that Smoke’s is not licensed but the “designer pop” was pretty good. As for the burger, I would pair with it as if I were eating a steak because, after all, in this form it is just ground steak cooked to medium rare. (Maybe a South American red) I suppose the limiting factor is the pretty strongly flavoured pickle.
March 23, 2009 at 8:48 pm
[...] to three per cell–in straight potting soil in the windowsill greenhouse that housed the lettuce. I gave the soil a good soaking before gently burying the seeds very shallowly (no deeper than 2 [...]
April 13, 2009 at 12:22 pm
[...] the backyard greenhouse the lettuce is continuing its strong growth. I’ve scattered some more seeds amongst the existing plants [...]