Here is another great post from my mom, Budget Saving Nana, about how to have a budget saving garden. She produces beautiful, edible landscapes that are organic and delicious plus budget saving.
Budget Saving Nana’s Lettuce Tip
It is almost the time of year for planting early vegetables. Many of you live in a subdivision with little or no yard. The idea of planting a vegetable garden seems like so much work. There are a few things you can do if you have shrubs in a front flower bed that will work great and help with the food budget.
First buy a package of mixed lettuce seeds from any store. You want the type that has several different varieties in the same package in order to save money. Don’t buy the heading lettuce variety. Scratch around your shrubs and place seeds directly on the top of the ground. Pick up some of the soil you have scratched loose and lightly sprinkle the soil over the lettuce seed. Keep the soil moist. In just a few days you will have tiny lettuce plants peeking through the soil.
This makes a great planting around foundation plants. Lettuce works like a pretty, green border around your shrubs.
To harvest the lettuce, use scissors and snip off the leaves low to the ground. This works better than just harvesting the outer leaves, because it keeps the lettuce from bolting so quickly. Bolting means that the plant sends up a tall center shoot that produces seeds and the leaves become bitter. You help keep this from happening by cutting all of the leaves back. The plant that you leave after cutting will send up more leaves for you to cut again and again.
What I suggest is that you only cut every other plant so that the plantings still look like pretty green borders around your shrubs. Eventually, when the temperatures get warm, your lettuce will bolt and produce seeds. When that happens, just pull the plants out of the ground.
A package of seeds can cost as little as $2 depending on where you buy them. Think about how much you will save in the cost of lettuce just by planting in your flower bed!!
For more organic and gardening posts, click here.
For more information about growing lettuce including the types that we grow and why, click here.
We did this last year, and it worked great! We had salads at least every other day all through the spring and into the summer. We also planted some herbs that I would mix in with the greens for an even tastier salad. Another way to save money is to make your own salad dressings. You’d be amazed at how easy they are. For a vinaigrette, start with a base of olive oil and red wine or balsamic vinegar, then just add salt and spices. For a sweeter dressing, start with a base of oil and honey and then add your spices.
Great ideas, Karen!
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