Today: Mixed lettuce, and the Bucket o’ Chard

One of the things I did this afternoon was (finally) sow some mixed salad greens, and while I was at it replanted the Bucket o’ Chard.

One box, with a slightly broken corner from the builders piling things up:

It had soil left in it from a scented geranium last season, which I just loosened up and reused. I needed to add some more, enough came out with the roots. Some of the old roots were also blocking a couple of the drainage holes, as I only noticed after getting water in there to rehydrate the big dry lump of soil and roots, so I had to sort of tilt it up and poke through from the bottom with a bamboo skewer.

A better view of the packet, though it’s still kind of washed out from the afternoon sun. This was a free packet with last year’s order from Nicky’s Nursery–and I got more of the same last week–so, I thought I’d use the old.

Just a little sprinkle of seeds over the soil:

Add another 1/4″ / 0.75 cm or so of soil over the top, smooth and press it down a bit, and water in.

We do have some other lettuce, wild rocket/arugula, and lamb’s lettuce/corn salad/mâche seeds, and I’m hoping to get more planted soon. If the warm weather we’ve been having lately holds, it ought to germinate and grow pretty quickly.

On to the Bucket o’ Chard. I hadn’t planned to mess with that today, but since I was planting some kind of greens anyway, well… 🙂

The bucket is about what it sounds like: an old mop bucket that got dropped so the bottom cracked for drainage. 😉 The handle also came off at some point. Not the prettiest container ever, but it works. I don’t expect it to last past this season, since it’s not UV resistant or anything.

It was back against one of the walls, but I pulled it out to where it will get better sun, before I even got started. The chard didn’t do much last year, mostly because where I tried to hide it back was shadier than I thought.

Before I pulled out the dratted maple seeds and loosened the soil up:

The bucket seems like an appropriate container for an underappreciated kitchen workhorse veggie like the chard. OK, I just made that up after the fact; I’m just cheap. 😉

One of last year’s stems was trying valiantly to get new top growth. I heartlessly threw it away, anyway.

The packet:

It should do fine direct-sown in the container now.

I decided to use about half the seed left in the packet:

Time for some hand cream later.

Covered it with about 1/2″/1 cm more soil, pressed it down a bit, and watered it in.

The bucket may get moved again later, but this is a good place for it to live, temporarily.

For safety’s sake, the lettuce went down next to it. I had several of those planter boxes on the edge of the pond last year, but the cats kept knocking them into the water every time they dried out to the point they were light enough. (Good thing there were no fish…) I may try mounting some brackets around the edge. if I can find a suitable type for under £25 each!

Last year, the lettuce all went into hanging baskets, but that traded slugs and snails for aphids off the rose bushes! So, this time around, I’m taking my chances with a planter box.