Organic. Period.

I love early garden lettuce. It really needs to be planted directly outdoors, which presents problems in unpredictable mid-western springs. For about 20 years now, I have planted “Snow Lettuce” in late January or early February with success almost every year.

So far in 2009, we had some of the terrible winter storm that hit the rest of the mid-west. I actually measured 11 inches in the yard in several places, and it was drifted deeper than that on the garden with layers of ice sandwiched between layers of snow. The snow on the garden was up to the second board of a three board fence, and deeper at the low end of the garden.

I took a picture to share with you. I located my little lettuce raised bed and sprinkled lettuce seeds onto the snow. There are so many birds around that I pressed them into the snow with my hand, but of course hungry birds will still pick them out if they want them. Black seeds would have appeared against the snow better, but anyway, this is the way I grow my earliest lettuce. The seeds melt down into the soil with the snow, and when the ground temperature is warm enough, they will sprout. That is my signal to get peas and spinach planted.

Sometimes after the lettuce is growing we will have freezing temperatures. When that happens, I can cover the bed with clear plastic. Bubble wrap is a good insulator if you can find a sheet of it large enough for your space. Leave it over the plants like a cold frame until the bad weather passes.

I’ll let you know when this lettuce is up and growing.

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