For years I shared a garden with a great neighbor. Need advice on fairly recent developments.

[Paper Roses]

My neighbor lives in an apartment building with a large yard next door to me. A new tenant as of 3 years ago, decided she needed to take control of all the gardening and has planted almost the whole area with stuff she wants.
Fine, can live with that. (She does not share)
My original partner in this venture and I have planted a few herbs and tomatoes, the new neighbor took over the rest. We are both alone so our needs are not great. It is a case of grin-and-bear it.

In an area near the garden I planted Friseé. I love it and have planted it before in our old garden. Since the spot I now have is tiny, I am wondering if I can transplant the thinned shoots of this wonderful lettuce to another spot. I planted the area from seed and the new plants are coming up nicely. I know they have to be thinned and that will be my project next week.

I have no yard to plant anything but wonder if I can plant the thinned shoots in a ground level window box. I have bags of soil and an area where I can place the box. Do you think this would work or should I just thin and throw away the new plants?
I hate to just toss them, Friseé costs about $5.00 a (very small) head--if you can find it--at local grocery stores.
Would love any advice,
PR

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. You can transplant with lettuce type thinnings if...

you do it when temps are cool, do it in very moist dirt, and keep the plants lightly shaded for 2-3 days..they will stand proud when they are growing happily. Usually that means spring or late fall, unless you are in a very temperate climate now.
And I think window boxes and even patio/edge of garden boxes would be great considering your situation.
I once grew a summer garden on my apt. balcony, was amazed at how much I could stuff into planter boxes.

About the only things I found to not transplant well is carrots.

Happy digging!

[Curmudgeoness]

3. I just have to say

that I love your sig line. Every time I see it, it makes me chuckle. BTW, how did you get it to show in red?

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. I tried to type it out for you

but the brackets disappear in the finished comment
So I don't know how to explain it and have it show on a post, and probably not in a pm.

Anyone help us out here???????

[csziggy]

5. Replace the square brackets with curly brackets {} or paragraphs ()

Then tell people to change to the square brackets. I tend to substitute curly brackets for the square since they are just a Shift key difference.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. ty, that is helpful....

[Curmudgeoness]

8. Thanks.

It worked.

Still smiling at your sign line.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. I have grown lettuce in window boxes for years

and it has worked fairly well. If I were you, I would try it. There is no harm and no waste, except for a little extra time, if they don't work since you are planning on throwing them out if you don't do this.

[mopinko]

7. should work fine. i started a lot of lettuce from seed this year.

i usually sow a dozen or so seeds per 2" peat pot, then transplant most to one per pot. but the lettuces were so fragile and germination was so good. i didnt bother thinning.
i ended up w about 6 plants per pot. i have been splitting them up and planting wherever i could find a spot. they have survived very well. i have a lot of them in pots and planters. they do just fine.
just know that those thick roots will be sucking those planters dry in no time. crazy heavy roots.

[NJCher]

9. sheesh

who ever heard of a garden bully? I always thought gardeners were pretty good people.

Guess not.

If you are in a hot-sun area, be sure you shade the frisee, wherever you decide to plant it.


Cher