Grilled Chicken Salad with Light Basil Dressing

This is our first year growing lettuce!  I am happy to say that it has been wildly successful and easy to do!  We started with Heirloom Solutions- Lettuce Heirloom Cutting Mixture Seeds.  The seeds were planted indoors on March 2nd and then transplanted into our raised bed on April 6th.  I have been busy and have waited to harvest some of the lettuce until today (May 19th) but I could have started harvesting it several weeks ago. 

I have been so amazed with the beauty of color and texture springing up in this raised bed.  Here are some great pictures below.  I have also shown how to harvest the lettuce at the end of this post if you are curious.  But for now its time to share the ingredients to this salad!

Salad Ingredients:
Lettuce
1 Chicken Breast
1/8 cup Red Onion
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Chicken Seasoning:
Mrs Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning
Emeril's Original Essence
Dressing Ingredients:
2 tsp. Olive Oil
1 tsp. Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp. Dried Basil Flakes

STEP 1: Season chicken breast with Garlic & Herb Seasoning and Emeril's Original Essence.  Cook until no longer pink in the center (about 7-9 min. per side).

Determining Your Best Planting Date (Part 2)

Now that you have figured out your Frost Free Date* what do you do with it?  I will let you in on a little secret....I found a simple chart where you just type in your Frost Free Date and everything else is figured out for you!!!  It tells you when to plant your vegetables.  No headaches and it saves you time. Here is the sample below with my planting dates for this year.

*NOTE: (If you don't know your Frost Free Date refer to my previous post here Determing Your Best Planting Date (In Spring) Part 1 )

This will be my third year using this chart and I love how it simplifies everything for me.  I didn't create this so I can't take any credit for it.  I found it on Pinterest and the rest is history!  Here is the chart on my Pinterest board called: Starting Plants Indoors from Seed. The Lazy Gardeners Seed Starting Chart Its from the website You Grow Girl.  You can download your own file for free and start using it right away.

Here are some of the great benefits of using this chart:

1. Simple: Just enter in your frost free date and your planting dates are automatically entered on the chart.  No need for you to do any calculations!
 
2. Staring Seeds Indoors: It tells you an early sow date or late sow date to start your seed indoors (if you choose to start your own and not buy transplants).

3. Direct Sow Outdoors: This is listed for plants that you just start from seed outside.  (These plants don't transplant well if you try to start them indoors from seed).

4. Choices of Planting Dates: You can choose either an early or late planting date.  Go with what works with your schedule.  If you miss the early then go with the late date.

Indoor Seed Staring (Part 2)

PART 2: PLANTING SEEDS

Planting seeds indoors is easier than you may think. (I say this speaking from experience).  My favorite part is that your choices of vegetables can be endless.  Instead of selecting from a few plants in the spring at a greenhouse you can order seeds (or buy them at a store) and get the variety of vegetables you choose.

NOTE: Not all seeds will be started indoors.  Check the back of your seed packets for instructions.  Many seeds such as: beans, beets, carrots, corn, peas, radishes, spinach, and winter squash are to be directly sown outside on their planting date because they don't transplant well.

MATERIALS:
1. Seeds
2. Organic plant food
3. Plant labels (can be handmade)
4. Potting Mix (soil-less mix) *see below for mix
5. Heat Mat (optional)

STEP 1:  Clean trays with bleach solution. If you are re-using planting containers or yogurt cups make sure to clean them first using a 1 part bleach to 10 parts water.  Its very important that containers are disinfected! This helps prevent damping off which kills seedlings.  Let the containers dry thoroughly before using.

Cleaning plant trays

Indoor Seed Starting (Part 1)

PART 1: Grow Lights & Stand Set-up

This is the second year that we have started our own plants indoors from seed.  We decided to do this because it saves us money and we know from the start that chemicals haven't been used on our seedlings.  

We use fluorescent lights because they are a cost effective way to provide warmth and light that the seedlings require. Incandescent bulbs will burn your plant.  You can also choose to purchase special grow lights for seed starting just keep in mind the higher cost. 

Fluorescent lights

You may be wondering if you can just put your seedlings by a window instead of buying lights.  The answer is that during the winter (when seeds are started indoors and sunlight is weak) you could use sunlight but you would also have to supplement that with artificial light. Vegetables require 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a day and they won't receive that in the winter.  If you choose to use a combination of sunlight and artificial light know that plants need to be under an artificial light for twice as long as they would need sunlight.

Below you will find the simple set-up we use and instructions on how to get started:

Timer, Heat Mat, Plant Food, Thermometer, & Plant Labels

Purple Tomato Seedlings & the Clay Pot

I have a large clay pot that was given to me when my mom no longer needed it.  The first year we moved to our house I decided to use it on our deck to grow some small yellow tomatoes.  Everyone who came over was amazed at how big the tomato plant was and how much it produced.  Flash forward.  This is the fourth year I have planted a tomato in this pot.  I don't know what the deal is but this pot was made to grow tomatoes!!   

The "Amazing" Tomato Pot

Next year I want to look around and see if I can find another large clay pot similar to this one.  All the tomatoes I have grown in this pot have tripled the size of the other tomatoes I have grown.   Last week I was able to harvest 13 tomatoes from the plant (with at least 4 to 5 more to come) and then make a yummy cold salad using some of the tomatoes.  Fresh tomatoes are incredible!

Fresh Mozzarella Tomato Salad with Basil from the Garden!

Beefsteak Tomatoes

Starting Plants from Seed

How do you determine what plants to start indoors from seed?  If this is your first time starting seeds I would recommend selecting a few types of vegetables and then buying the rest.  This will allow you time to experiment with starting from seed and learn what adjustments you need to make.   Some vegetables are more difficult than others to start from seed (we have learned this from personal experience).   

This is the first year that we decided to try and grow our own plants from seed.  Normally I buy tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, basil, parsley and cilantro plants from a garden center.  Then we directly sow the rest of our vegetables in the garden as seeds (such as beans, squash, and carrots).  

You may be wondering what prompted me to try this?  I would say a combination of curiosity and the future idea of saving money.  This year we doubled our planting area adding 2 more raised beds (for a total of 4 beds) and we knew the cost would add up quickly.   So this winter I did my research and we decided to take the plunge and grow as many plants from seed as possible.  We both figured that if it didn't work we would just go out and buy the plants we needed.  

In previous posts you have seen the Parsley, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Tomato, Eggplant, Peppers and Basil that we successfully started from seed.   I didn't get around to taking pictures when I first started those seeds, so today I am going to make sure that I show you the steps I took in detail. 

In this post I am going to be planting squash, zucchini, watermelon, and cucumbers.  Typically you just start these types of plants from seed right in the garden, but I wanted to try and give them a head start this year.  If you try squash, zucchini, watermelon or cucumbers you need to plant the seeds in pots that decompose when you plant them directly in the ground (such as peat pots or coconut coir pots).  With these types of plants you want to disturb the roots as little as possible.  When you are ready to plant them in the garden you just tear 1/2" off the top of the pot and plant the entire pot and its contents directly in the ground. 

Seed Starting Set-Up

Seed growing set-up

View coming in the room

Parsley (Double Curled)

Parsley

Planted seeds- February 9th.  

Seeds germinated- February 13th

Success rate- 7 of 10 

Started hardening off- April 

Transplanted into garden- April 22nd

Broccoli (Di Ciccio)

 Broccoli

Planted seeds- March 16th 

Seeds germinated- March 19th

Success rate- 6 of 6

Started hardening off- April 22nd 

Transplanted into garden- April 29th

Cauliflower (Snowball Y)

Cauliflower

Planted seeds- March 16th 

Seeds germinated- March 19th

Success rate- 6 of 6

Started hardening off- April 22nd 

Transplanted into garden- April 29th

Eggplant (Black Beauty)

Eggplant

Planted seeds- March 24th

Seeds germinated- March28th

Success rate-__ of 20

Started hardening off- May 20th?

Transplanted into garden-May 27th?

Sweet Pepper (Carnival Mix)

Sweet Pepper

Planted seeds- March 16th

Seeds germinated- March 23rd

Success rate-___ of 6

Started hardening off- May 20th?

Transplanted into garden-May 27th?

Red Bell Pepper (Cal Wonder)

 Red Bell Pepper

Planted seeds- March 16th

Seeds germinated- March 23rd

Success rate-__ of 6 

Started hardening off- May 20th?

Transplanted into garden-May 27th?

Zinnias (Cut & Come Again)