Saladboxxx/The Leaves Below

Sometime during all that snow we got in late winter, I started craving a garden. Much of my desire was wrapped up in a general craving for spring. Having tired of winter stews and root vegetables, the promise of cool salads and iced tea led me straight to seed catalogues. Normally at this time, I would have focused almost entirely on cultivating varieties of tomatoes, plus some other summer fare. This year, there were too many unknown environmental factors to confidently move forward on a strictly tomato regimen. Namely, sunlight. We moved into our house in September, just as all of the shade trees began to think about turning. Even then, I noticed the yard was heavily shaded for most of the day. Now that May is here and the trees are in full force, I can tell you that tomato plants will not live a happy life in my yard.

So with this assumption in tow, and a newfound interest in greens, I found another outlet: I built a salad table and planted lettuces in it.



The table, which I built with Sam on a Saturday morning, is portable and waist-high and features three shallow beds lined with screen for adequate drainage. I found out about this simple and practical design via the Maryland Cooperative Extension, a must-try resource for gardening information.



Now I have loads of spinach to eat.