How to grow floating lettuce!

It's that time of year to move our lettuce inside so we can grow it in the hot summer. We have been very successful. We have some metal shelves, and hang two sets of regular shop lights on top of each shelf.

For each shelf you need a plastic container that fits under the bed. I believe it's about 40 inches long. You also need a 4 x 8 one inch styrofoam board and some of the small plastic bathroom cups.

Using a 2" hole drill, cut holes about 4" apart. Cut two pieces and glue them together. Fill the plastic container with water mixed with liquid fertilizer. Put in about three gallons and mix well.

Place the styrofoam on top and the lettuce pots fit great! The roots will grow in the nutrient reservoir.

I start my lettuce in small 1 1/2" paper pots that I make. They will fit into the bathroom cups. I punch holes in the bottom and sides of the bathroom cups so the roots can grow out and into the water!

(What you see in the picture are some greenhouse hydroponic net pots, but I used bathroom cups for several for a couple of years.)

Happy growing!

Seven reasons why I love Utah!

Here are the seven reasons why I love Utah!!!

Sweet little Victoria

with her parents - Caprise and Adam

It's fun to have cousins living nearby!

Little Caleb and his baby sister, Madeline!

Madeline with a smiling face!

and their parents, Todd and Amanda

May 12 Garden harvest

Our May 12 garden harvest:

5 gallons strawberries

3 heads of cabbage

3 heads of broccoli and several side shoots

a few carrots

Beet Pickles

Every time Michael goes to a salad bar he gets pickled beets! So, we harvested our beets and I made him some!

First big day in Utah!

We started off our trip with a high point! While making a change in planes at Dallas, we met and talked with some missionaries coming home from Argentina. One was a Sister Eyring. They sat right in front us on the plane and when we got off, guess who was there to meet her (and Sveta)!

One of Sveta's dreams was to go through a temple session in the Salt Lake Temple. We met Caprise and her sister and took in a session first thing. It was wonderful.

Afterward, we took some time to see some sites of Temple Square. My favorite place is the Christus statue and we took Sveta there first.

We then took a tour of the Convention Center.

It is beautiful.

They have a waterfall . . .

and a roof top full of trees and flowers.

This bust of President Monson was brand new, just put on display the week we were there!

We were blessed to have a sister serving there that had majored in Russian so she was our tour leader. She was able to practice her Russian with Sveta.

Caleb's funny observation

While we were on our hike, Caleb got tired so Grandpa put him on his shoulders to ride. He patted Grandpa's top of his bald head and said, "Grandpa your hair fell down!"

Bridal Veil Falls!

One our trip to Utah, we took a day to go into the mountains and hiked and picnic around Bridal Veil Falls!

It was an enjoyable day!

The mountains were green and trees were blooming.

Isn't Victoria just the cutest baby!

Sveta's friend Elena came with us to spend the day with Sveta.

The best days are spent with family!

Caleb did some rock climbing!

Beets grow in South Carolina!

Growing Beets (and carrots) in the south is something I have not ever tried. Having clay soil, we don't have the proper drainage and then we have the heat to deal with. It stays too hot too soon in the spring and stays too hot in the fall.

But with Sveta here and loving to use beets in several dishes like borscht, last fall I tried to grow some. They didn't do too much but wintered over and kept growing. I also started some in February outside this spring to see what they could do. Here are my results!

I'm excited that they are bigger than an inch! In fact, some are quite large. We had a wonderful sweet and sour beets dish with dinner. (I'm also pretty tickled about how the carrots are doing as well!)