Outstanding Lettuce

The lettuce has matured and I'm harvesting whole plants now instead of picking off outer leaves for salads.  I have to say that this Kalura lettuce is the best I've ever grown, and I've grown many different varieties of lettuce.  It resists heat very well, doesn't get tipburn, and tastes really good.  I grew the plants in my 34 cm pots using my regular potting soil mixed with compost and rock powder.

They're also the biggest lettuce plants I've ever grown, that's a measuring stick graduated in inches.  I had a time rolling it up in plastic wrap and fitting it into the veggie bin in the fridge.

The mustard greens got too old to eat without digestive problems, so I replaced them all with carrot plants.  I have high hopes for a good crop of carrots this year, I let each plant grow as large as possible to maximize yield...only one plant in each 34 cm container.  I just use them in soups, though I do like shaved carrots with oil and vinegar.  Trouble is, the sugar bothers my teeth.  So I quit eating them that way.  Did you know that the average modern carrot has as high a sugar content as ripe strawberries?  Onions are now very sweet as well, though they didn't use to be.  Southern varieties of onion are especially high in sugar.  I'm convinced that the last batch of onions I bought in Walmart are at least as sweet as fruit.

Which brings me to my next topic...growing onions.  I'm growing mostly White Spear this year, a type of bunching onion which doesn't form bulbs.  I use the tops as well as the bottom part.  The green part is a little chewy sometimes, but it's great in a stir fry. And very important...the root knot doesn't affect them at all.  I'm also growing some Broad London leeks for soups.

Air quality has been challenging for me, last night the air was incredibly bad.  It smelled like a mixture of burning vegetation, wood smoke, and some kind of pungent and very irritating chemical.  Just one breath gave me cough, chest pain, and burning in my nostrils.  On a scale of one to five with five the worst, I gave it a five in my journal that I keep next to my recliner.  Lately it's been running at two or three in the daytime, so I'm not doing much outside.  Here's a link you may find eye-opening to say the least...

http://www.prescribedburns.com/

Did you know that smoke from prescribed burns aka controlled burns can be 20 times more carcinogenic than cigarette smoke? Not surprising, considering that many of the plants being burned like poison ivy and Brazilian Pepper emit very toxic smoke when burned.

I work outside when the breeze comes off the sea for a while, but since there is currently a pollution-driven bloom of toxic algae off the beaches this time of year, that air sometimes makes me sick too. When a strong wind blows all the air pollution away, all my symptoms fade away with it.  Since there's a front with strong wind due through tonight, I'll rest up and do my outside work tomorrow.

No planting beds this this year, the ground is very dry from lack of rain and I don't want to spend a lot of time watering them in polluted air.  It takes an ocean of water to keep the planting beds moist when they sit on dry sand beneath.  The containers avoid all that, and they prevent pine root invasion if I keep them off the ground or move them around now and then.  And since my potting soil is now rich in humus, I get better growth in the containers and better texture and flavor in the greens.

I think I might grow a lot of southern peas this year in the beds when the rains start.  If I do, I'll have to dig out all the pine roots first.  As with all gardening, a lot depends on the weather.  This cool season has been well above average in temp again.  The current administration doesn't like us to say global warming, so here's my response...global warming, global warming, global warming, global warming, global warming, global warming, global warming.