Never Buy Lettuce

Even if you have nothing but a table with a lamp on it, you can grow lettuce for your salads and sandwiches.

This time of year, I'm all about growing things in the garden, but most of it is daydreaming right now. Instead of planting things in the snow, I plant them for the windowsills. Lettuce and radishes are easy to grow indoors, so I have to get the jump on the season.

Really, though, it's easy to grow those things year 'round indoors, so why pay between one and two dollars for a head of lettuce? Or almost as much for a small bunch of radishes? Why not have your salad and eat it, too??

A pot of eight inches or deeper, a few seeds and some water is all it takes. Both radishes and lettuce like cooler temperatures so a windowsill is ideal. Don't overwater, but don't let them dry out.

Use good soil. Potting soil is okay to start them, but you'll need to supplement with fertilizer or add compost to begin with. Fertilize the plants every month or so. 

Harvest lettuce when the leaves are at least 4 inches tall. Cut  off a few and let the plant grow again - that's why you need more than one plant.

Radishes are ready when they're as big as you want them.

If you want to save seeds from your lettuce and radishes, you'll need to set them outdoors when the weather settles. They'll be ready to go to seed in a couple of months, so plan accordingly.

Grow your own salad

You can grow fresh radishes and lettuce, etc, inside during these cold winter months and save on salad, if nothing else. Make sure you have good dirt, deep pots and enough light. On warm sunny days, set the pots out doors in the sun. (Don't forget to bring them in if your nights are freezing temperatures!)

Gardening supplies

Before you go to the store for spring gardening supplies, check out your kitchen. Old spoons, spatulas and more can be used to dig, smooth and weed plants in pots or small areas. Wax paper, foil or plastic wrap tubes, cut in pieces, make seed starting pots. Empty coffee cans make containers for bigger plants. Use your imagination.

Grow garlic on a windowsill

Garlic will grow happily in a container on your windowsill. Buy fresh garlic from the grocery store and use the largest cloves to plant. Put the unpeeled clove, pointed side up, in light soil with the tip just showing. Keep the soil damp and in a few days you should see a green shoot. You can use this shoot as a mild garlic flavoring (Give it time to grow at least six inches first, then trim only a few inches at a time. If you don't trim this top, it might become quite long and topple over - that's ok. When it turns brown and dries up, dig the clove of garlic you planted and you should have a full bulb. Take a clove from that and start over! (Container grown garlic will make small cloves.)

Watering houseplants

Put a bowl under the kitchen tap to catch water that's run to warm up or cool down and use that to water houseplants or container plants outside. You'll be surprised how much water goes down the drain unused.