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lettuce tips?
Bonsai-Marc
Posts: 444
in Fruit & veg
im thinking of making a border around my strawberries for some lettuce
any tips?
shall i just gets some seeds and start germinate every couple of weeks and then plant out about April, then i can pick leaves every so often and last most the year?
what is a good type? not something i know much about as per growing or eating, nice for sandwiches and salads etc. I looked at red and green cut and come on ebay
ty
0
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maybe ill add to the right edge of my strawberry patch and at back against fence
have to move my growing rosemary a bit but also going to add a cat litter area hidden amongst, top right near the palm thingy, a dropped sand pit
I should get a packet of mixed lettuce seed. This generally includes green and red, plain and curly. Sow a few now under some protection and continue with a few every week or two throughout the spring and summer. That will give you a lettuce every day if you want that many. If not, the slugs will love them. Come to think of it they might even tempt the slugs away from your strawberries.
The mixed colours can look quite pretty as a border to a bed as well. But what do I know?
Lettuce don't germinate too well at high temperatures so it's customary to sow somewhere shady Jun - Aug. If we get any sunshine.
well im hoping the slugs dont find the strawberries (going to add some straw soon also, they also not found the raised bed yet) but yes i thought a nice colorful border of lettuce around it, red green red green etc
germinate in trays 1st every couple of weeks and then plant out maybe
would pick at weekends and use during week probably, hoping to have them all out by summer and then pick and let regrow etc
Sounds like a plan.
I'm not convinced you'll escape the slugs though. And they'll love the straw, which they hide in during the day before eating your strawberries at night. Better to use strawberry mats which you can make from old cardboard boxes. About a foot square with a slit and a small hole so you can get them round the plants.
You can then check beneath them during the day and remove all the slugs that'll be hiding there. With luck there'll be big black beetles too - they'll finish off the rest of the slugs for you.
i thought the weed mesh was a help against the slugs
maybe lettuce not an idea if will attract
They can't get through it but they're persistent little b*ggers and they'll go round the edges and come up through the planting holes. Don't let them (and my warnings!) put you off though - you might be lucky, and if not, there are controls you can use.
If you cut the stem about an inch above the ground (but below most of the leaves) it will sprout again, giving you a few smaller ones. Or you could use the 'cut-and-come-again' type but I know little about them.