Salad in a storage crate

Over the Winter months it is hard to grow much of the Summer favorites and I saw this great idea on Youtube with Roots and Refuge farms - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IXn2t8GLh0 This is a great video and a great Youtube channel to follow. They are in Arkansas - so weather is somewhat different to the Pacific Northwest but I thought this was a great idea to try! So late January this year I decided to try this.

I got a plastic crate that was about the same size as the soil bag. So first step find a place for the crate lid to go for growing your Winter greens, look for a sunny spot. Second step put a few holes in the bottom of the soil bag and then lay it over the crate lid. Third step is to cut out a large rectangle from the top of the bag of soil, make sure to leave an inch to an inch and a half away from the edge of the bag. Fourth step is to sow your seeds, I chose 3 types of lettuce as they were for baby greens there would be enough space for 3 varieties. Once you have sown the seeds, I did mine in 3 rows, you water them. Then put the lid over the top, mine actually connected with the base so made a true greenhouse experience. As I did this in our coldest month you can expect it to take a few weeks before you get baby greens and if you keep it going until Spring then you will need to uncover as they will outgrow their space!!

Lid in sunny level spot if you are on natural surface you don't need the lid as a base.

Find a sunny spot for your crate with level ground - you can grow it on a patio or balcony if that is what you have for space.

I used a bag of miracle gro but you can use any potting soil you want to use.

This is the potting soil I had on hand, but you can use any variety and this one fit on my crate lid! This is to show that you need to put some holes in the back of the soil bag for drainage.

This is about how you want the soil rectangle cut out.

Pick whatever lettuce you want to grow - I chose 3!

These are the lettuces that I chose, there was not a method to my madness - they looked nice and I thought we would eat them! For small leaves they all work well in salads.

This shows the rectangle you cut out and seed then cover.

Once you have planted your seeds, water them in and then cover with the crate lid. Water regularly and slowly you will get seeds growing.

This was about 10 days after planting! It took about 3 weeks to get baby greens to pick

So once they started growing I watered several times a week, but check the soil each time to make sure you aren't over watering.

Once danger of frost is over you can uncover and they will continue to grow!

So we are still picking our lettuce in April but now they are uncovered! We cut them at the base and most are growing more leaves!