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🥕 The Gardening Newsletter 🥕

The more you know, the more you grow!

12/16/25

What's One of the Easiest Foods to Grow?

Hi Reader!

Just a short note here. This time of the year is sloooooow in the garden. The days are crisp; sometimes sunny and sometimes not. The nights are long and dark.

I really have to fight hard to stay active because my sofa, blanket and pjs start calling my name around 5:30 pm every day.

Today is a sunny day so I went outside to take a survey of the garden after many near-freezing nights, sporadic rains, and heavy wind gusts.

Admittedly, I spoke to the few vegetables in my garden on very cold days. What did I tell them?..... "May the Lord be with you!". I know, bad garden mama.

Everything is looking very good actually; considering I didn't go the extra mile in protecting them. I'm slightly amazed by how well the plants all withstood the elements of the past few days/weeks.

The turnip greens really surprised me. I pulled back the frost cloth that I had on them for a month now and they had sprung up and filled the bed. I picked a few and they were delicious. I covered them back up because it's supposed to be near the teens in a couple nights.

Here is what surprised me though. Back this summer I planted pots and beds of flowers in my side yard to add color. Just on a whim I also threw in lettuce and spinach seeds. I thought they might get crowded out by the flowers but when I checked today I saw this.

The flowers in the middle of the pot have died but the spinach and the lettuce around the edges are thriving, in spite of the elements. Can you believe it?

I wrote about how easy it is to grow lettuce in an earlier edition. You can plant it in any kind of a container. It has shallow roots so you don't have to put it in a deep pot. I've heard of some people growing it in hanging flower baskets on their porches.

I'm in a warm climate so I can only grow it in the spring and fall/winter. In the summer, it bolts and flowers quickly.

For my readers in northern cooler states, you can literally grow lettuce all year long. Why buy it when you can have your very on listeria-free, salmonella-free, organic lettuce in your own yard.

Try different leaf varieties so you can harvest it as cut-and-come again. It's so worth it to me.

Well, that's all I have for now. I'm not sure if I'll have any more editions this year as everyone is preparing for the holidays.

So, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🎄

Love and Hugs!

Jan❤️

Gardening Thoughts

I drew this Christmas drawing almost 10 years ago, and still every Christmas I like to look at it. This year, I'm sharing it with you.

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That's all I have for this edition. Feel free to write me at jangardener@gardenease.org if you have any questions or comments.

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If you have questions, comments, praises, complaints, or ideas about gardening or about the newsletter, you can reach me at: jangardener@gardenease.org