Let us eat lettuce! Salud to the salad!

A while back my mother gave me a bunch of seeds that she thought were chard, then I realized when looking at them later they weren't and confronted her about this and she then said it was a Chinese vegetable of sorts, which after a while of talking with her I concluded that my mom is just a nut as usual. 

The seeds (sown under a raspberry plant) appeared to be lettuce like and after promising that inform readers of their fate this is what has sprung up in their place:

Looks like lettuce doesn't it? (Bleeds like lettuce too, you know that white sap that oozes when they're cut)

The only thing is, is that I have no clue what lettuce they are.  They were apparently 2 different lettuce varieties.  Obviously lettuce seeds are pretty standard tiny skinny football shaped things of varying shades of brown so if anyone is able to discern what is what here I'd appreciate it.  Both appear to be loose leaf lettuces, one I would not be surprised to be a generic black simpson and the other has light purpling about the leaves.

Here's the first type:

And now the second:

(closeup of purpling)

If you're a lettuce eater/grower/identifier, I'd appreciate any info!

On a similar note, husband and I made chirashi salad again with the plethora of greens that abounded in the garden!  In the basket is sorrel, salad burnet, siberian kale, garlic green, mache, mystery lettuces #1 and #2, mustard greens and Swiss chard.

Though not a "true" salad by some historical definitions where there are dozens of greens if not more, it was still quite delish with the pops of spicy of the mustard, the textures of the soft mache leaves/flowers (it was bolting now) to the ruffly kale, garlickiness of the... garlic and unexpected flavor of the chard.

It was my first year growing the Swiss chard and I was WEIRDED OUT by the saltiness of it.  Not unpleasant, just not expected.  I wonder if it really was as salty as I thought it was or if I simply note saltiness more than other people.  Other than dehydration, what might make chard more salty than usual I wonder? Large amounts of fertilizer (which I swear I didn't do)?

The seedlings! The seedlings!

No way! The seedlings are starting up!

All of them except the beetberry, but I'm not too worried because a) it's hasn't been that long since I planted them and b) it's known to take a notoriously long time to germinate

The kale, mustards and chards are no surprise to be making an appearance already with all of my diligent watering (for once) and the extra rain that's been going on. Oh, babies... so delicate, so much work... *sigh* just when I was appreciating my mature plants and all their fruit bearing-ness.

The trick now is to keep them nice and protected from EVERYTHING. Too much sun, critters, etc.

My plan, as I don't have any really thin floating row covers is to get some sticks, poke them in the ground and pop newspaper on top to shade them if needed, though the forecast is looking like it won't get to even the mid-90s, so perhaps it won't be necessary.

I might not even have to water at all for nearly a week if the forecast is correct, with rain next week too.

Less work=good (Hurrah!)

In terms of the critters, that's the tough stuff. I and REALLY gung-ho on critter prevention as I've had some ridiculous swallowtail butterfly caterpillar "infestations" and flea beetles and slugs lately, so alas, I have been spraying (gentle spraying) of neem oil dilution all around my plants as a notice for the bugs to "BACK AWAY."

I haven't been this excited about my plants coming up in a while. This fall, I just have some INTERESTING things planted, perennial vegetables such as mache, chard and beetberry and pretty japanese mustards and such have just gotten me super impatient to see them.

I can't wait until the bumper crop of tomatoes finish up so I can yank them and plant my other stuff:
Here is a map of my plan for fall/what I currently have going on in the garden (click on pic to see the plans clearly, and note, this is definitely not to scale):

Fall/Winter gardening plans

It's August and flippin' hot.

My husband keeps saying, "It's almost fall! It's almost fall!" and I sort of look at him and say, "There's plenty of summer here, baby." After all, it's Tennessee and the temperatures are pretty warm even into October.

Last I remembered at least.

Despite the current and predictable early fall heat, I am pumped about fall gardening, to the point that I almost wish my tomatoes would be DONE already so I can get some peas back into the ground and be able to sit back again and not have to pamper anything in my garden like heat lovers force me to do.

Plus I've always found peas (sugar, snow and English) satisfying in their yields and I can eat their tips. Tomatoes mean only fruit eatin'.

This reminds me of my most likely unsuccessful attempt at sweet potato growing, as I got lazy/poor in getting proper soil/amendments to pile up in the large bucket I was growing them in. As long as I can get a few I'll be pleased and maybe I can still pile up some dirt at this point? Either way, what I was getting at is that sweet potato leaves and tips can be eaten too, like a tastier spinach (aren't other greens, nearly always?)

Multipurpose vegetables=good

But back to cool weather gardening (unfortunately having to be started in !@$#@ hot weather).

My plan is completely tear down the bean and cuke trellises by September, all the tomatoes by the then or mid-Sept. and plant various peas in their places. I like using bush-type/no-support needing peas too to delineate between my beds of parsnips, turnips and carrots (well, those are good delineators too).

I will be planting lucullus chard, sold at my local mom n' pop, Russell's, and nearby I will plant Perpetual Chard, a chard that I got from Territorial Seed (http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1129/s). It is apparently bolt resistant and can eventually perennialize in zones 7 up. Exciting as I like not having to mess with parts of my garden more than usual because it's plenty of work already!

I am also devoting one of the smaller beds to blue and red kales with mache/corn salad on the the far sides of the bed. Mache is described as being so tender it will melt in your mouth, so THAT sounds delish (from Botanical Interests: http://www.botanicalinterests.com/store/search_results_detail.php?seedtype=V&seedid=436). Mache supposedly is a perennial too, and with it being on each end of the bed, it can fill itself in if it likes or I can just pull the middle annuals out if I like. I understand that I could potentially let the kale's self seed, but in the summer, kale's not that great and slightly bitter and got super bug-ttacked.

Finally, another small bed is being devoted to Strawberry Spinach/Beetberry (http://www.territorialseed.com/product/975/s) which I hope germinates well and will perennialize too as it's a pretty cool looking plant and "very European." Oh I feel so debonair saying that ;) I purchased this as well from Territorial seed.

If all goes well in my garden I should be building up the perennials (maybe even malabar spinach will continue to love me next year with enough mulching to keep it warm until spring!) and then I can stop with the whole hard work thing! (ha ha.)

(I'd also like to grow Tom Thumb buttercrunch lettuce (http://www.territorialseed.com/product/897/s): because it sounds so darn cute, but I'm the only salad eater here :(

This fall (true fall when it's consistently below 80 degrees, hope), with the assumption that all my fall vegetable planting is done I will be working on prettifying the garden so that not only does it look tidy and full of vegetables, but will have flowers year round (if I plan this correctly) to keep the pollinators here and always busy.

Now if I can just get a hold of some butterfly plants to stop the swallowtail butterfly caterpillars from decimating my parsley/cilantro that'll be nice.