Planting Romaine lettuce in lasagna bed in the next 2 weeks?

13 years ago

Total newbie here, first time planting vegetables, so please don't laugh :)

I have built 2 raised planters on the north side of my house that get about 2 hours of morning sun followed with shade then another 3-4 hours of late afternoon sun.

The two boxes are next to each other, one is 4'x4'x36" height, the other 3'x4'x18". Both layered with Alfalfa hay/straw/manure. Top being 8-10" of straw.

Questions:

1. Is this a good time to plant romaine lettuce in zone 9? 2. What would be good companion plants?

3. I read that lettuce prefer cooler shady spots,should I plant something taller to provide them with more shade?

4. How close can I plant them?

5. Being lasagna bed, is it advisable to just plant seeds in the bed (holes with compost)? or I would be better off with seedlings?

thanks much for helping.

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Comments (7)

oilpainter
13 years ago
It is not advisable to plant anything in a lasagna bed. It is basically a compost pile in bed form and if it's done right it is heating and decomposing. Too hot to plant anything--the seed or seedling would fry.

Lettuce does not necessarily have to be shaded. I suppose in your clinate it might have to be though. What it prefers is cooler soil and cooler temperatures than summer usually brings--around 60 to 65 degrees
sandhill_farms
13 years ago
One question that I have about your location of the raised beds: You have (2) hours of morning sun and then another 3-4 hours of afternoon sun, but then that's this time of year. What are conditions going to be this fall and winter and where is the sun going to be then? How often will the sun be shining on this area those times of year? Lettuce is a cool season crop. I live in Southern Nevada and won't be planting lettuce until late September.

Greg
Southern Nevada
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Annica, I feel your pain!! We just moved here and I brought what plants I could with me from my nice sandy yard in Michigan. This is what I'm planning to do and I am hoping if someone can tell me if I'm on the right track, I just learned about the lasagna method. I started digging holes to put some plants in (NOT easy!) The only thing I have to mix with it right now is some sand to loosen the clay. I too am on a very tight, well ok, nonexsistant garden budget. I was then going to use all those moving boxes and put them on the ground around the plants in the area I want to be my garden, I used a weed wacker and cut the weeds down as close to the ground as I could, left the clippings and was going to just put the cardboard on top. I found some free river rock to use for now to hold it down, and have started a compost pile out back and am hoping to start layering it on the cardboard through the summer but it gets very windy here and I'm afraid it might all blow away! We do have quite a bit of dried horse manuer that blows over from next door so I was going to rake that up and add it also. It's been there since last year (or longer) so it is all dried and clumped, I'm guessing I will have to break it up? Am I doing this right? Vic
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Depending on if it will be dry most of the time & wet just a few weeks of the year or if it will be moist during the growing season... You might be able to direct some of that water to a channel & plant on the higher sides of it to prevent drowning plants during the high water times. What grows well for me in the shaded moist woodland: groundcovers: Ajuga reptans, Golden Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia), spotted dead nettle (Lamium maculatum) grass like foliage: Acorus (sweet flag), various Carex like 'Ice Dance', Iris (I. foetidissima, Japanese Iris), common orange daylily Hosta Astilbe Aruncus (goatsbeard) Japanese anemone - fall bloomer that tolerates part shade Tradescantia (spiderwort) Mimulus (monkeyflower) Try looking at this swale garden creation with pics (uses rock to help control water & fill space) http://herselfshoustongarden.com/2007/01/swale-garden.html Here is a link that might be useful: bog plants
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I've grown romaine (also called cos) for several years now. Usually it's "winter density", but I grew "Rosalita" and "Paris Island" also. I don't grow leaf lettuce at all anymore. The romaine has a nice crisp crunch that you just can't get with leaf lettuce and you can use it a lot of different ways. About the only way I ever used leaf lettuce was to wilt it, and yes it is good that way, but we tire of it too quickly. It doesn't stand up very well when used as the basis for a conventional salad. Plus the neighbors' eyes really light up when I carry over a big head of romaine, which I start doing when the weather starts to heat up because I know they won't be good very much longer. I have grown them in the fall and in the spring. Last spring, I started them indoors but I can't say if it made a difference because the weather warmed up so quickly, and they stalled a little right after the transplant, even though I hardened them off. They didn't have a chance to get very big this spring. But a year ago last spring, I direct seeded and they got tall and full and were absolutely delish! I think for fall planting I would use winter density but it's probably too late to plant now unless you can put them in a cold frame. Last fall, I had good sized winter density romaine through December 15 because I had dug a "pit" in the end of one of my raised beds and planted it there, then placed opaque shower doors across the edges of the bed. This year, I planted seed in August and I think I only have one or two plants from that as I didn't know to put my soaker hose out there on them until after I determined that the seeds had dried out too much during germination. *sigh* Next year things will be different. HA! We should all have THAT embroidered and hanging on the wall, it's certainly true here in Oklahoma even if we DON'T intend it to be! LOL
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This is a grate place Ginjj! Lot's of great people and gardening knowledge in one place. Starting lettuce from seed is very easy. I use the small plug trays because they make transplanting very easy. I start one seed per plug and they sprout in under 3 days. Keep the sprouts about 1" under your shop lights for about 2 weeks watering as needed (plug trays are small so they dry out pretty fast). At about 2 weeks give or take a day, I start to harden them off to the outdoors. I transplant into the garden at 3 weeks. You can just gently grab the seedling leaves and it will pull right out of the plug. In the early spring I usually cover them with a frost blanket (Agribon 19)for a few weeks just in case we get an unexpected hard freeze. For fall lettuce planted out in August or September I use the same frost blanket as shade cloth to protect from August heat and sun.
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toffee1
Original Author
13 years ago
Oilpainter:
I built the raised lasagna bed just for veges, it would be a big bummer if lasagna by nature are not suitable for planting at all.

Greg:
In winter, the sun hours reduced to half or may be 1/3. The site become quite shady.
sandhill_farms
13 years ago
toffee - Well lettuce is a cool season crop but it does need sunlight, perhaps more than the north side of your house is going to provide. I would say that given you already have your beds there to try it out this year and take notes on how it does. I would also keep notes on how many hours of sunlight it gets in that area during your growing months.

As far as your beds go, stick your hand down in to it and see if it feels warm or hot. Perhaps it will be okay to go ahead and plant in to it if it's not really warm or hot. Worse case you could go ahead with your plans and even if it fails you'll know what you face next year. You can use it as a learning experience. I don't know where you live, (you don't say), but in zone (9) you may be able to grow all year. I know I do here in zone (10).

Greg
Southern Nevada
oilpainter
13 years ago
Whoa toffee

I never said it wouldn't be suitable at all. It is a great way to get good soil in a garden bed.

I got the impression it was a new bed and the stuff in it hadn't been rotted down yet. Why else would you call it a lasagna bed. If I got the wrong impression I apologise.

I will rephrase what I said....
If the bed is still rotting the soil will be too hot to plant in-----
If it has rotted down to soil then plant anything you want in it, you have good soil--

Never-the-less---lettuce is a cool season crop and should be planted in fall or spring
sandhill_farms
13 years ago
Perhaps I got it wrong, but I got the impression he or she was going to grow in a raised bed. Either way if they stick their hand in it and it's not hot they may get the lettuce to grow just fine. I'd be more concerned with sunlight and how much they are going to get on the north side of the house in the fall.

Greg
Southern Nevada
oilpainter
13 years ago
Ya Greg-- I agree with you

Planting Romaine lettuce in lasagna bed in the next 2 weeks?

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Planting Romaine lettuce in lasagna bed in the next 2 weeks?

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oilpainter

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toffee1Original Author

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