Lettuce pray

My lettuce always bolts.   No matter how careful I am, it really is too warm in the vegetable garden for this plant.  Â  I have even resorted to ordering packet upon packet of special seeds which all claim to have lettuce which won’t bolt too early.   But we shall see.

And in the meantime I have decided to try lettuce in much more shaded locations.

I tried up near the potting shed in some pots.   But that was a bust: a small colony of slugs which seem to love the shady damp conditions ate them to soil level in one night.

Now I have planted them in among the lilies at the front door.   They get morning sun here, but that’s about it. And I am rather hoping that the foliage from the tall lilies above them will shade the leaves a little. It’s companion planting, but not as we know it.

And speaking of lilies. Here are the monsters I planted in Lynn’s pots up at the potting shed. Boy have they been lavished with water.

I use them as a camoflage to hide the sins of the not so attractive water barrels.

I could blame Artur for eating the lettuce in the pots by the shed.   But he just uses the pots as a launch pad for the mole run behind the shed.   He can perch here happily for ages, tail a quiver, just waiting for a mole to emerge.

He caught one here at Christmas, so I guess he is the eternal optimist.