The first lettuce harvest

My little basement greenhouse is paying off.  I have 60+ tomato plants, 4 cucumber, cabbage, broccoli, squash, herbs, leeks, hot peppers and now sweet peppers under the greenhouse lights.  I cannot believe that the investment of those grow lights will produce all those vegetables by the end of summer!

Today we had our first harvest of lettuce.  I used 2 grow trays filled with organic soil and have 2 flats of lettuce and spinach growing.  Now that they are of a decent size, it was time to thin the crop.  With the thinning comes the first harvest.

I took my handy salad spinner and brought each tray upstairs to the kitchen.  Using a small sharp scissors, I thinned some of the plants and many of the bigger outside leaves of my lettuce and spinach plants and got almost a whole bowl of baby lettuce for our next salad.

Thanks to the full spectrum fluorescent light fixtures hanging just 3 inches above the plants and the application of organic fish emulsion spray for nitrogen, along with frequent watering I have produced a garden in the basement.  Some of my tomatoes are already 6 inches tall and have been re-potted once already.

Tomorrow's lettuce salad for lunch will be wonderful!  I know how it was grown.. guarantee it to be organic and clean.  And will taste wonderful with my homemade ranch dressing made with homemade buttermilk and homemade yogurt!! 

I don't know why I never invested in grow lights until now... and the basement becomes highly productive space when a corner is used for growing our own food.  Seeds are cheap and easy to buy and these plants are easy to grow!!