Lettuce in a wagon

As my mother got older and arthritis started taking its toll, she had to give up vegetable gardening. Rather than give up the succulent buttercrunch lettuce she’d always grown, she tried raising it in a red wagon. She drilled drainage holes in the side of the wagon, filled it with potting soil mixed with lime (lettuce likes slightly alkaline soil), and planted a corner with lettuce seeds. When her seedlings were an inch high, she transplanted them into rows and planted a few more seeds in another corner of the wagon so she’d have a continuous supply.

Knowing that lettuce prefers cool weather, my mother would wheel her wagon garden into the cool garage on hot August days. She could also wheel it around to the faucet for easy watering. My mother enjoyed lettuce for nearly 10 months of the year with this method.