Читать книгу The 20-30 Something Garden Guide - Dee Nash - Страница 24

What you’ll need:

A shallow bowl-shaped planter

Two varieties of lettuce seed or a mesclun mix of seeds

Potting soil

Watering can

Your two hands

When I saw this terra-cotta-colored, plastic planter at my local home improvement center, I just knew I had to make a salad bowl.

If your container doesn’t have holes, take a hammer and screwdriver, or an electric drill, and make five or six holes spaced throughout the bottom of the container. This is to help it drain properly. If the container is pottery, you’ll need a masonry drill bit.

Place soil in the container until it’s about ½ inch from the top.

From this point, you can do it one of two ways:

I decided to plant mine in a swirl pattern so I dragged a bamboo spatula through the soil. You could also use play sand to mark your design. I then sowed seeds along the swirl pattern.

If you don’t want to go to this much trouble, scatter the mixed seeds of a mesclun mix over the top of the soil. Lightly cover them with soil. Seeds will usually sprout in 7 to 10 days, but check your seed package for germination dates.

Water soil and keep it evenly moist, but don’t drown seeds with too much water either. Place the bowl outside, but keep it elevated to prevent rot on your deck and bunnies eating all of your salad.

When plants get to the desired size, you can either cut them like mesclun, or let them grow to maturity. I know it’s hard to wait!

TIP: If you have large enough containers, you can interplant shorter or trailing plants with taller ones like tomatoes, for extra visual appeal. Even add some flowers. (This squash plant looks lonely!)