This morning, I picked the first greens for consumption from the container garden! My mini harvest included a couple of handfuls of arugula and a few large kale leaves.
The bad news is that some small creature has been digging in the container, exposing the roots of some of my leafy greens. I think the culprit is one of the neighborhood squirrels. For now I'm going to keep an eye on it - if it continues I may need to look into putting some mesh wire or other deterrent over the top of the container to keep the digging critters out.
Outside of the digging, things are going well for the most part:
The kale is getting taller.
The arugula is growing like crazy.
The spinach is still small, but is growing. In another few weeks, I think there will be enough for a baby spinach salad.
The lettuce is also still on the small side. Two of the bunches look really good; the others are a little puny. I rotated the container around to allow them to get more direct light without being shaded by the kale and arugula. We'll see if that helps.
Stephanie and I are going to a Growing a Salad Garden class next Saturday. Hopefully I'll learn what I need to do to increase the happiness of my spinach and lettuce. Stay tuned for a recap of the learnings from that session!
By the way, here's what I made with the first bit of arugula from my garden - a simple salad of arugula, apples, figs, and toasted pecans, drizzled with walnut oil:
Beautiful blog!
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