This promises to be a really great growing season down here in southwest Missouri. We’ve had ample rain and the last few weeks have seen almost perfect growing conditions. The nighttime temperatures have been in the fifties followed by daytime highs in the seventies and low eighties. As a result my early radishes and romaine lettuce have really taken off!
The radish seed I like to use is a variety called Cherry Belle and the lettuce is called Little Caesar from Burpee Seed. I’ve been growing both for some years now and enjoy the crunchy taste of the fresh radishes and fullness of body you get with romaine. Both of these are now growing in my small cold frames (the windows have been removed) and in the open raised beds out back. My seeding of lettuce back in October is why I’m enjoying lots of fresh romaine salads right now. This is especially nice considering the cost of a head of iceberg lettuce at the market right now. Now, while I do not have this down to a science, I have been lucky enough to grow just enough plants, spaced the right amount of time apart to insure a continuous supply through mid summer. At that time, I hold off planting any more lettuce until mid August when I can get in yet another crop and then a late planting in October so the small plants have a chance to grow big enough to survive the winter months.
Once the month of January is behind me I find I can begin to concentrate on the how and why of my spring and summer gardening efforts. The month of February is a time for two things to kick in gear. One, I get my catalog orders done. In recent years it seems that seed cost has really gone through the roof. Or is it just me? In either case, I have gotten much more selective concerning what I order and who I order it from. Increasingly, I find myself drawn to a company called Pinetree Garden Seeds (www.superseeds.com). They have a good selection of seeds that do not cost an arm or a leg. They accomplish this by offering packets that contain fewer seeds. This suits me fine as my small raised beds rarely require a packet of 30 tomato seeds to get me through the season. Pinetree offers packets of 15 to 20 seeds. An example of this would be a heirloom tomato, Brandywine, that I love to grow each year. One very popular online company offers a 50 seeds packet for $2.95 while you can get them at Pinetree for $1.15 for 20 seeds. I don’t know about you, but I’ll go for the fewer seeds since they generally have a limited shelf life and I like fresh seeds at the start of each season. This does not mean that I do not order from companies like Burpee Seed (www.burpee.com) or Park Seed (www.parkseed.com) from time to time. They all have great products and service. I just need to keep my eye on reality. (It would be nice if you could order seeds in little micro packs of 5 to 10 at a time. That would be perfect for small time home gardeners like me).
So anyway, I plan to get my computer warmed up and will peruse the electronic pages to see what’s being offered for 09. My two little raised beds are 4x8 feet each in size and produce more than enough for a bachelor like myself. My focus this season will be on the following vegetables for springtime planting; romaine lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes and beets. These all grow fairly quickly and do not require much growing space. In the late spring I will also plant beans (pole and bush), tomatoes and bell peppers (both sweet and hot).
The second thing I like to get started in the month of February is some plant starts using 10 cell seed starters I’ve had around for ages. By starting some plants indoors (lettuce, radish and spinach in the early spring) I find I can get a great jump on most everyone around me. By the end of March when many gardeners are just beginning to peck at the soil in their yards, I plan on harvesting my first cole crops. I get this done through a combination of early planting and cold frame propagation techniques. I also work my garden soil just as early as possible. Here in southwest Missouri, it’s generally warm enough in late February (see graph) to work in some compost, sand and vermiculite and to get a few early starts out there. More later in the month as I get cranking.
After many false starts in the home gardening business I came to realize that for all the rewards of growing your own stuff there was a dark side to it all. Garden, once established require a lot of work. My first effort (way back in '91') was little more than a twelve foot square of ground in the backyard that took me all of one hour to create. I used a shovel to remove the layer of grass and then roughed up the ground a little and spread some seeds. No big deal, I thought at the time. Yes, it was no big deal. Nothing actually grew in the pitiful square but weeds. It was at some point while I was standing over this 'garden' watering the weeds that it come to me there might be more than meets the eye to the business of wrestling large succulent carrots, peppers and lettuce from old mother Nature. I then did what I should have done much earlier. I went and asked a neighbor who was known in the neighborhood for her audacious harvests. She came over and eyed my little piece of disaster and suggested I get a book or two on the subject of square foot gardening and then start slow and work up gradually. A much more humble man now, I followed up her suggestion by a visit to the library where I came across a book by someone named Mel Bartholomew. It was titled, fittingly enough, 'Square Foot Gardening' and it did get my attention. For one thing, the author promised a great deal of vegetable from a small space with little or no weeding involved! After reading that I was hooked and went home with my new mentor tucked under my arm. Years later I am still amazed at how quickly success came once I shifted mental gears and went with a raised bed. More on this to come.
The radish seed I like to use is a variety called Cherry Belle and the lettuce is called Little Caesar from Burpee Seed. I’ve been growing both for some years now and enjoy the crunchy taste of the fresh radishes and fullness of body you get with romaine. Both of these are now growing in my small cold frames (the windows have been removed) and in the open raised beds out back. My seeding of lettuce back in October is why I’m enjoying lots of fresh romaine salads right now. This is especially nice considering the cost of a head of iceberg lettuce at the market right now. Now, while I do not have this down to a science, I have been lucky enough to grow just enough plants, spaced the right amount of time apart to insure a continuous supply through mid summer. At that time, I hold off planting any more lettuce until mid August when I can get in yet another crop and then a late planting in October so the small plants have a chance to grow big enough to survive the winter months. 
