In mid Michigan the winter can get long, really long, to the point where I want to buy potted plants to smell dirt and see the color green again. I’m also horrible about eating lettuce before it spoils in my fridge. Solution: pick when you need it lettuce.
About two weeks before Christmas I pulled out an old enamel pan I’d snagged at a flea market. While I wouldn’t use it for cooking it does make the perfect shallow planter for my oversized kitchen window sill.
I filled it with potting dirt I had leftover in the bag from this summer. Then I sprinkled the lettuce seeds over the dirt. Follow the directions provided on the seed bags but I didn’t even put dirt on top of the seeds. I just watered them and let it sit. I also replaced the bulb in my window light to one rated for plants, available online for under $10 usually.
TIP: If the package says to plant at 1/4″ depth add your seeds to a cup full of dirt and mix then sprinkle across the soil.
TIP: Use warm water to raise the soil temperature and promote germination of the seeds, especially if your windowsill is cold like mine is.
Whenever the top soil felt dry I’d add about a cup full of lukewarm water. It took about a week for the small seeds to start popping up all over the pan. At this point I started rotating my pan about halfway through the day to promote the plants growing up and not sideways towards the window light.
One morning I took the time to set up a time lapse video to show how much plants can move in about 4 hours time. Here’s the results.
I couldn’t believe it either. Those suckers don’t sit still.
Well fast forward another couple weeks and you’ve got plenty of baby lettuce to snip and use in your recipes. Glorious to have fresh greens when outside is anything but green.
Have you done any indoor gardening?
Happy Questing!
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