Let’s focus on lettuce and micro-greens for this easy primer.

Why, what, how and where

Neon flash for any person who believes their plant-growing skills are lacking or non-existent: Growing lettuce and micro-greens at home will prove that you’re not only capable and successful but it also could launch a whole new you, giving you a true green thumb.

Home-grown lettuce is almost as different from store-bought in taste as home-grown tomatoes are. Try seeding and growing lettuce at home, not just for the delicious taste and texture, but also for the convenience of adding a side salad to any meal. Plus, it is always a nice touch to have lettuce to complete a sandwich when you’re having soup on a cold winter night while perusing a new garden catalog.

Giving credit where due, commercial and small growers have come a long way in improving lettuce varieties and taste; even the packaging has gotten better if you’ve tried it from a box. Container lettuce is worth buying a time or two, just to hold on to and re-use the package to grow lettuce and micro greens at home.

Micro-greens are the first tiny green seedlings of plants that are usually seeded outside in the spring and harvested when fully grown. They include lettuce, broccoli, basil, sunflowers, peas and seed mixes of cress, chard, mustard and many more. The taste of these little micro greens is beyond delicious, and fresh. In the blink of an eye — OK, perhaps mere days  — they are ready for eating after seeding.

Toss micro-greens on soup, pasta, sandwiches, eggs, vegetables and main dishes. Using them on your morning oatmeal might be a stretch, but they are genuine antioxidant nutrient boosters for eating and juicing.

Purchase specific micro-green labeled seeds from garden centers, online or use leftover seeds from your cache. One caution: Parsnip seeds used for micro-greens are poisonous, so only seed parsnips outside in the spring and grow until these root vegetables are fully mature.

Just like micro-greens, use what lettuce seeds are on hand or shop for any mix or type you like best among the categories: butterhead, looseleaf, crisphead and romaine.

Seeding

Clean and rinse an empty plastic lettuce container (or any low container). Poke some holes in the bottom for drainage.

For a larger mass of micro-greens and lettuce, try growing them in recyclable large aluminum pans sold at grocery and discount stores. Those pans are less expensive than specific seed-starting trays in most cases. Use a screwdriver or nail to poke holes in the bottom. Bonus, they are often sold with their own plastic cover, which works great as a dome over the tray until the seeds are up and moved under grow lights or near a sunny window.

Fill half to three-quarters of the plastic tray or aluminum pan with moistened, sterile seed starter or a very lightweight potting soil (not outside garden soil from the ground).

Heavily sprinkle micro-green seeds or leftover seeds over the soil. Use a separate tray for lettuce seeds since they will take longer to mature.Add a very light layer of soil over the seeds.

Water the seeded area well, using a sprinkler-type head instead of a regular pour-type nozzle which can move the seeds and soil around too much. Keep the seed bed moist.

Tray location and vare

Place the tray with the plastic cover near a sunny window or under grow lights that are 12 or so inches above the trays. Technically, growing micro-greens and lettuce under indoor grow lights is ideal, but if saving on expenses try growing them near a sunny window (not too close to chill the seeds). For small batches, which is always recommended on the first try, purchase a grow lightbulb sold at garden centers and hardware stores and position it toward the seed trays. Use a timer for turning on and off; 16 hours on and eight hours off works well.

Use a heated seed mat if you wish; it will hasten seed emergence.

Once the seeds are up (usually in two to 6 days; read the seed packet for days of emergence), promptly remove the plastic cover and place it near a very sunny window or under grow lights.

Water when the soil looks slightly dry, usually every day; they can dry out quickly, so keep an eye on them. Lack of water is sure death.

In about seven to 10 days, the fresh little micro-bursts of micro-greens should be ready for harvest. Lettuce will need a few more weeks to grow.

To harvest, cut a handful of micro-greens right above the soil line; they won’t need rinsing unless some soil is holding on. Continue harvesting the micro-greens until they are all cut.

Harvest the lettuce by cutting the leaves but leaving an inch of growth at the base of the plant which will grow back quickly and provide more lettuce to harvest. This is the same cut-and-come-again procedure often used when growing lettuce outside.

When the plants are spent, just flip over the tray of soil in the same container and do another batch of seeding. Continue this method for a time or two or use fresh potting soil. If indoor gnats become a problem, toss the soil, clean the containers and start over with fresh potting soil.

Betty Cahill speaks and writes about gardening in the Rocky Mountain Region. Visit her site at http://gardenpunchlist.blogspot.com/ for even more gardening tips.

There’s more green, white and red staring you in the face than at an Italian flag factory.

You’re torn over whether to splurge on one or more of these seasonal splendors or hold tight to your budget and continue walking straight to the dairy aisle. You can’t help but dream about guests walking into your aromatic, cinnamon-spiced holiday party oohing and aahing over the house filled with dazzling seasonal floral eye candy. Darn you, Santa!

Lacking self-restraint, you fill your basket with green finery and a quart of milk. Getting it all safely to your house is the next decision. If not well protected from cold on the ride home, your holiday poinsettia will turn into a holiday “poin-dead-ia’”(groan).

Getting live flowers home

Try to choose a shopping day when the outside temperature is well above 32 degrees. Independent garden centers and most stores will gladly wrap temperature-sensitive bouquets and plants using cellophane and paper (ask them to kindly double the paper).

For additional fool-proof plant protection from the cold, bring a large cooler (which also keeps food warm) into the store and let it warm up while shopping. A sturdy box with a plastic or folding cover works, too. Bring along some paper for extra padding around the edges if needed. After checking out, carefully place the plants in the container and secure the top so no cold air gets inside. Greenery bundles and winterberry branches aren’t cold-sensitive and should be fine without extra protection.

Hopefully your plants and greenery include an attached tag that provides care instructions. (Take a photo of the tag just in case it gets misplaced.)

When back home, carefully unpack plants that are wrapped in foil. Cut some holes or slits in the bottom of the foil and then place the plant on top of a tray so water will freely drain. Place fresh greenery and winterberry in a bucket or vase with room temperature water until used for decorating.

Check for flying fungus gnats near or on the soil and if present isolate the plant until they die off. Just let the soil dry out for a couple of days before watering again. Fungus gnat eggs and larvae use damp soil to finish their life cycle, so drying them out works well initially.

With a quick online search, you’ll find other easy home remedies using cinnamon or mild soap to kill off fungus gnats. Use care and avoid overdoing any home treatment.

Another very helpful and safe biological product to have on hand for all your indoor plants will have the active ingredient Bti, used to kill mosquito larvae in outdoor features. This product works well for indoor plants that have fungus gnats. Look for the tan-colored, small round dunks or kibble bits sold at garden centers. Simply crumble a dunk or add the bits on top of the potted plant soil and water. As the Bti bits dissolve over time, they kill off fungus gnat eggs and larvae.

Keep seasonal greenery merry and bright through the holidays

Poinsettias, cyclamen, Norfolk Island pine, orchids and rosemary plants all need around six hours of bright, natural light from south-, east- or west-facing windows. North windows can work if using indoor plant sunlamps with a timer. One exception is Norfolk Island pine, which will do fine with less bright daily sunlight. Plants shouldn’t touch the windows and be kept away from cool drafts and heat vents. Remember to turn plants every week to prevent them from leaning toward windows and sunlight. This group of plants grows well in temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees. Rosemary can take it warmer.

Fertilizer needs for many indoor plants slow down during the winter months. Read the plant tag for specific recommendations.

Grouping house plants together and using small pebble rocks that are slightly submerged in water in a tray under the plants will help increase humidity levels as the water slowly evaporates. Many indoor plants benefit from this technique, especially Norfolk Island pines and orchids.

For poinsettias, water when the surface feels dry to the touch. If the soil is allowed to dry out for too long, leaves will drop and plants will wilt. Too much water leads to root rot, insects and death. Poinsettia plants are not poisonous to people or pets, but the milky sap may irritate the skin.

Cyclamen, Norfolk Island pine, and rosemary plants should be watered when the surface of the soil is dry to the touch. Finessing and mastering the watering needs of individual indoor plants comes with experience and paying attention to the plant. In general, it is better to underwater than overwater.

Garden retailers and many grocery stores sell Christmas trees, wreaths and attractive bundles of assorted greenery for holiday decorating. Christmas tree lots often have a box of trimmed fir branch cuttings that are free for the taking; just ask first. Or consider getting a permit to cut a Christmas tree, then use trimmed branches for additional decorating. Go to fs.usda.gov for permitting and more information.

The key for longer-lasting, fresh-cut greenery is regular moisture from misting and using anti-desiccant sprays (sold at garden centers) to seal the leaves and pores on the bark to hold in moisture.

Wear gloves for trimming and cutting fresh greens and do it over a tarp — they will be sticky and messy. When making garlands, swags or wreaths for decorating, keep the stems in room-temperature water before making the display. Use a hand pruner to make diagonal cuts through the stems, and then gently crush the exposed end — this will help with water uptake. Set the stems back in the water for a few hours before assembly and decorating.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and joyous December holiday season. And after family and friends leave, sit down with a 2024 seed catalog and dream of you know what!

Betty Cahill speaks and writes about gardening in the Rocky Mountain Region. Visit her site at http://gardenpunchlist.blogspot.com/ for even more gardening tips.

What version did you grow up with? Maybe you turned up your nose or shook your head with the “no way” universal food language of “please remove that red concoction from the house.”

Let’s step back a little before we pass too much judgment on this traditional holiday side dish. We all agree that cranberries look pretty; they’re shiny, red and just the right size to pop in your mouth. But a raw cranberry can be bitterly tart eaten straight up. On the bright side, as a kid when you saw the bags of cranberries show up in the grocery store, you knew Thanksgiving was getting close and Christmas was not far behind.

First, the name. The internet says “cranberry” was originally called “craneberry,” in 1647, so named after the German word kraanebere by John Eliot, a Native American missionary from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Seeing cranberries for the first time in their new country, Eliot, and perhaps other colonists, saw the resemblance of blooming cranberry flowers, petals and the stem growing on the shrub to the head, neck and bill of a crane.

Back in the day, Native Americans picked lots of cranberries. Algonquins called them sassamenesh, which translates to “sour berries.” They pounded cranberries into the first-ever energy bar, combined with dried deer meat and fat, and stored them in small animal skin sacks to last several months. Tasteeee!

Cranberries have excellent antibacterial properties and were historically used by Native Americans to make poultices for wounds, to treat stomach problems and fevers. Dyes from the red skin of the fruit were used for clothing and jewelry.

Later, when European colonists arrived, they figured out quickly that cranberries and all their vitamin C helped keep away scurvy, a disease caused by lack of vitamin C in a diet. Today, cranberry juice and tablets are often taken to prevent urinary tract infections. Cranberries are full of the chemical proanthocyanidins, which keeps bad bacteria from sticking to the surface of the tract.

(So much for passing on that dish of cranberries at Thanksgiving, right?)

The cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is native to the swamps of the Northeast. It belongs to the heather family (Ericaceae), which also includes huckleberries, blueberries and rhododendrons. The latter two and cranberries don’t grow well in the Western U.S. because of our dry, alkaline soils.

Cranberry shrubs are low-growing, woody perennials with small oval leaves on their vine-like shoots. They form dense mats from their runners, or horizontal stems that grow and root along the soil surface.

Cranberries flower dark pink from May to June, which then form berries in late September to October. The shrubs don’t constantly grow in a lake of water like the television commercials. Rather, fields are flooded for ease of harvest.

Today, five states grow the most cranberries: Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington.

Now for the decision. Do you prefer molded jellied cranberry? Directly out of the can, slices of this wiggly gelatinous tube slide witih simple ease onto any plate no matter how highly piled with other Thanksgiving Day tasty eats.

Or, do you prefer the stove-top cooked version of whole cranberries with cups (the number is up to you) of added sugar? The end result looks more like pie filling.

I’ll take whatever you’re serving on Thanksgiving!

The word is out about homegrown garlic. And the word is flavor.

Go ahead and ask: Doesn’t all garlic taste like … well, garlic?  Not even. Think about buying garlic at the supermarket; what’s the selection like? You’re given just one type of basic garlic bulb from a grocery store basket to bring home to finish your special sauce. Imagine if you could only buy one type of pepper or apple for the rest of your life … no jalapeno, no honeycrisp. Are you kidding?

The range of garlic flavors is broad and varies whether you’re eating it raw, roasted or baked. Wine can be described as dry, oaky, fruity, etc. Garlic flavors are wide-ranging too. Add your own to the list: subtle, mellow, earthy, rich, strong, mild, spicy, sweet, lasting, explosive, nutty, hot, full, and fiery hot.

The only way you’ll have a better selection of garlic, which means a broader range of flavor characteristics, is to plant and grow your own. Fall is the best time to plant garlic for early-summer harvest (more on that below). It likes a long growing season to establish deep roots and form large, healthy bulbs.

The earliest record of garlic used by humans dates back nearly 6,000 years. It was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun along with lapis lazuli artifacts and gold. Garlic was an important part of many early cultures. They figured out how well garlic served their diet in taste, food preservation and even commerce.

Need-to-know garlic basics

Garlic (Allium sativnum) is in the allium genus, same as onions, so they will need some curing time after harvest to form the papery outer shell. There are two subgroups of garlic: hardneck (bolting) and softneck (nonbolting) varieties. There are cultivar types to choose from under each variety. This sounds confusing, but once you read about the growing and flavor characteristics of the cultivars sold on the market today, you’ll know which ones you wish to grow.

Plant some of both. Hardnecks will send up an impressive flower stock (called a scape) next spring. Grocery stores often sell garlic scapes this time of summer; they are a culinary hit used in pestos, sauces or cooked like asparagus.

Hardneck garlic has outstanding flavor, and is highly recommended for making salad dressings and pressed fresh over vegetables. It is also delicious when baked or eaten raw for health benefits. Hardneck bulbs can grow to a large size yet have fewer cloves (four to 12) per bulb. They are very easy to peel, which is much appreciated by gourmets. Hardnecks have a much shorter shelf life than softnecks, ranging from three to six months or so after harvest and curing.

Softnecks do not grow a flower scape, which makes them easier to handle for braiding and growing for commerce. They produce several cloves per bulb (up to 20 in some cases) and are tightly wrapped, which gives them a longer storage period than hardnecks, up to nine or 10 months or more under the best storage conditions.

Softnecks are the type you find in grocery stores. They can be mild in taste or have quite a strong bite. Just as hardnecks, there is a range of flavors with softneck garlic.

There can be numerous cloves in softneck bulbs, so when planting use the largest cloves. Save the smaller ones for eating/cooking or plant them in a pot indoors and grow garlic chive; just snip off the greens to use in dishes.

Where to buy and how much to plant

Use garlic from quality garden centers or farmers market planting stock instead of buying at the grocery store garlic. You don’t know if the grocery store garlic was treated to prevent sprouting or how it was stored.

Each individual clove on the bulb is planted (not a whole bulb at once), which will grow into one full bulb when harvested the following spring in late June or into July. Planting garlic is generally sold locally in quantities of one to three bulbs per cultivar. Mail orders are sold by the bulb, by the quarter to half to full pound or as variety packs.

Let’s say you wish to plant two hardneck bulbs which have 12 cloves per bulb; you’re actually planting 24 garlic plants. Softneck garlic with more cloves per bulb will grow more plants. It’s up to you how much room you have to grow garlic and how long you want to cook with homegrown versus store-bought. The more you plant, the less you’ll have to buy from a store.

If you only want a few plants, then you’ll only need a bulb or two. Consider going in with a friend when shopping locally or online to try different cultivars.

Keep in mind that mail-order availability decreases in the fall, so get your orders in now. They’ll ship when it’s time to plant anytime from September through October. Get them planted before the ground freezes, just like ornamental bulbs. Local garden centers receive their garlic planting stock in the fall, so plan on shopping then.

Planting basics

I plant in raised beds in a sunny location. In-ground beds work well, too, or anywhere there’s good soil without nearby root competition from other plants. Just remember where they are planted so you can water them through the winter if moisture is scarce.

Sun is important as well. Planting cloves in part shade in the fall is OK, if the area starts getting more sun after the winter solstice, then full sun by the June or July harvest.

Garlic doesn’t grow well in compacted soil or heavy clay. I add a balanced fertilizer to the soil a few weeks before planting. Garlic isn’t a high-nitrogen feeder, but it does need some nitrogen. Too little nitrogen may produce yellow plants, less vigor and smaller bulbs.

Gather your materials prior to planting: bulbs, plant labels, trowel, box or tray to hold separated bulbs, and mulch. Remember that one bulb will grow from one clove so plan accordingly. And use the largest cloves to plant to yield the largest bulbs.

On planting day, I carefully open the bulb and separate the cloves, not to worry if the papery sheath falls off. Place the cloves (pointy side up) on top of the soil spaced 4 to 6 inches apart with the rows 8-10 inches apart. After placing, plant each clove 2-3 inches deep. If the soil is nice and workable, then simply push the clove down into the soil, or dig a 3-inch-deep trench and place the cloves 4 to 6 inches apart, then cover with soil.

After planting, use a 2- to 3-inch layer of shredded leaf or weed-free straw mulch over the planted cloves and water it well. With mild fall weather, green above-ground leaves may start growing, which is fine. The most growth takes place in the spring when the weather warms up.

Through the winter, renew the mulch and water once or twice a month if it’s been dry. If spring is rainy, remove the mulch so the growing bulbs won’t risk getting mold. Stay on top of weed removal around the plants. In early spring, spray the green leaves with a liquid fish-emulsion-type fertilizer to give them a nutrient boost.

Harvest tips

As mentioned, fall-planted garlic is ready to be harvested anytime from late June into July. Growing garlic in the foothills or at higher elevations may require a few more weeks before harvest. Keep some of the largest bulbs for planting in the fall if you can control yourself from eating all you’ve grown.

The flower scape on hardneck cultivars need to be cut off the plant a couple of weeks before harvest. Try to cut them down when the scapes have curled downward and before it begins to grow straight up. Doing so allows the bulb to focus on more bulb growth before harvest. Cut scapes off to about 3 inches or so from where the scape grows from the plant. Store them in the refrigerator until used.

Keep plants watered up to about a week before harvest; they shouldn’t be harvested in muddy conditions or when the soil is overly dry.

Let the plant tell you when it is ready for harvest. Plants start browning from the bottom up and from the tips inward. When approximately five to six leaves remain green, it’s time. Some people harvest when the bottom half of the plant is mostly brown and the upper is mostly green (what I do). Loosen the soil around the bulb with a fork or spade and carefully lift. Do not pull plants from the ground.

If the plants are completely brown or have been in the ground too long, the bulb starts to separate (you’ll see individual cloves) and it won’t cure well or last as long.

After harvest, get the plants out of the sun and into a basement or area where there’s good air circulation, not a hot garage. No need to wash or scrub them clean; instead, use your hand to brush off any dirt (lightly). Let the whole plant dry on newspaper or hang in bundles of six to 10. This will cure the bulbs and form the papery outer shell, just like onions. In about four to six weeks, cut off the brown dry leaves close to the top of the bulb. Cut the roots off, too. Now it’s OK to fully clean them with a soft brush (no water).

Store the garlic in mesh bags in an area with humidity around 50%; a wine cellar is ideal if you have one. Softneck types can store up to nine or more months. Hardnecks usually last three to six months, so use them first. Bulbs that become soft or mushy are past their prime.

If you’re wondering if can use fresh garlic right away in recipes or raw, heck yeah! Just use the whole bulb within a few days (store in a glass bowl; never refrigerate garlic). Freshly harvested garlic is surprisingly mild tasting; it develops more flavor and kick as it cures and ages.

Betty Cahill speaks and writes about gardening in Colorado. Visit her at http://gardenpunchlist.blogspot.com/ for more gardening tips.

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