Since my gardening strategy this year has been to keep it simple, I decided to focus on greens for my winter crops. Lettuce, spinach and other greens grow quickly, love containers and provide several harvests from the same plant. They're perfect for the lazy gardener.

I also wanted to try out a cool new container, made from Dakota's discarded art project: an extra-long tool box. After he drilled drainage holes in the bottom of each compartment, I filled them up with dirt and compost and planted my salad mixes. This year, I went with some lettuce mixes from Renee's Garden. They've all grown really nicely and the mixes provided a good variety of color and flavor in the salad bowl.

I also planted some baby romaine in the center of a large pot and surrounded it with baby carrots. That combination has worked out really well, with the romaine growing tall and healthy and the carrots happily growing downward around the rim of the pot.

I've also got a couple one small pot of chard and another pot of collards growing, although that's not really enough for a meal. I should have planted more.

Overall, though, I'm happy with my winter crop. I expended very little effort, and have already enjoyed many delicious salads fresh from the back patio. Hopefully the warm weather won't cause my greens to bolt too soon, and I'll get a few more cuttings off the plants this Spring.