Frugal Living - Grow Lettuce / Salad Leaves

Someone suggested getting started on the new fruit, vegetable and salad growing project as soon as possible, so I did! On 28th November 2008, I planted up a plastic tub with an assorted pack of lettuce seeds for salad leaves and made a cloche from a plastic cover that had once contained a duvet. It looks like this could be the first crop of anything edible from the new garden in 2009. Here's hoping the free, make shift propogator does a good job!

28/11/08 - Plastic tub planted with lettuce/salad leaves. It's covered in a makeshift plastic bag cloche and south facing to catch some winter sun.	18/12/08 - 20 days after planting, despite freezing temperatures and continual frost, the seeds have already germinated and are starting to sprout!
18/12/08 - Not a great picture, but enough to show that the seedlings are, indeed, growing during winter in Scotland.	26/12/08 - Sunny Boxing Day, lifting the polythene lid on the salad leaves reveals plenty of new seedlings sprouting.
19/02/09 - Lettuce seeds growing slowly but surely. Some of these will be thinned out and grown on as lettuces, the remainder will be left as 'pick as we eat' salad leaves. 2nd box was planted 11/02/09	06/03/09 - The first lot of salad leaves are certainly thriving. I have given them very little water and absolutely no heat, just some cold and damp Scottish winter weather under a sheet of plastic.
09/03/09 - The second box of salad leaves are coming along nicely as well.	15/03/09 - This is the 'salad grower' coldframe made from a bread basket and sheet of plastic.
09/03/09 - Close up of how the first lot of salad leaves are progressing.	15/03/09 - Exactly 15 weeks from planting the seeds and we're having some with lunch today.
15/03/09 - The first pickings from the red salad leaves tub that was planted up in late November.	03/07/09 - Perpetual lettuce, the red tub is still going strong, I crop then resow in small blocks.