I usually don’t bother with a fall garden.  It’s mostly because of laziness. Not that I’m afraid of work, but that over the years I haven’t been very successful and I’ve been too lazy to figure it out.  I feel like I’m either planting too late, or if I’m planting on time the garden is too hot and my germination rates are poor.

Lettuce seeds just starting to sprout in soil blocks.

When I started selling at the farmers market I decided I needed to start planting more lettuce as a cash crop and if done correctly I could get several harvests.  However, two plantings later and a horrible germination rate, I was ready to give up.  Maybe I’m not destined to have lettuce past June.

Then I read a book.

My opinion on starting seeds changed, like, completely.  I’ve usually avoided starting seeds indoors.  It was so much work, making sure they were warm enough and had enough light and water..for what? A week or two extra growing time? Well, when you are planting for sales a week or two or three is pretty huge.  There is also the advantage of better germination rates than out in the field.  I couldn’t get lettuce seeds to germinate well in the heat and dry of July, but I have an almost 100% germination rate in my 70 degree house where I can keep an eye on them easily.  There is also the cost and bother of plastic or peat pots and flats, plastic wears out and peat can only be used once. I started reading about the soil blocking method, I ordered a soil block tool and made my first pan of soil blocks and sowed my lettuce seeds.

Newly prepared bed with fresh compost worked into the top couple inches of the soil.

As I said before I got an almost 100% germination rate.  In the mean time I spent some time preparing my lettuce beds.  For the past few years I had been using a no-till deep mulch method, and generally I like the philosophy and the lower manual labor (tilling, spading, weeding). However I was finding I still had problems with compact, clay soil and seed germination. After much research I’m transitioning to a low-till method, working only the top couple inches of soil, leaving the deep tilling to the worms. I worked this bed over with a spade, aerating the entire thing, then covered it all with my homemade compost and worked it in the top couple inches. All beautiful and ready for my lettuce starts to be transplanted this weekend. 

Two and a half week old lettuce seedlings being hardened off for transplanting in a few days.

I will be experimenting with starting more of my seeds indoors.  Our biggest obstacles will be heat and light, so we will be working with artificial lighting and greenhouse methods this winter.  It’s always a big experiment around here.