"Could it be slugs eating your lettuce?"

Both Christopher and Adriana wondered as much in the comments. I suppose it could be slugs. I recently obtained some diatomaceous earth from Territorial Seed in an attempt to halt slug destruction in other parts of my garden; I do have slugs.



But recall if you will that my lettuces are in this tower. The picture above shows the destruction in the midle pot. Does that seem like a slug-friendly attack spot to you? (Is there any such thing as a slug-unfriendly attack spot?) There was not so much destruction in the other pots.



What came immediately to my mind was the lettuce damage documented in this post on my previous blog waaay back in December, 2005. One morning I parted my bedroom curtains, and found this:



And this:



I attributed that episode to raccoons which we knew to be frequenting our roof at night. Someone at the Botanical Garden said, "Nah, it's birds. The birds ate your lettuces." I accepted the authority of Botanical Gardeners and have gone with birds ever since. But the thing that troubles me is, don't birds sleep at night? Sometimes in the summer we hear their mating calls all night long, so I guess not. Who knows.

Of course, I am not necessarily attributing the lettuce attack to the same hypothetical creature. But what to do? I was planning to get some bird netting, the sort you'd hang over berries or fruit trees to keep them from getting at your fruit harvest. Should I apply some diatomaceous earth* too? Will it harm the birds? That's the last thing I want to do.

It's easy to envision a bird perching the tower of lettuce pots and muching away.


*Chemists routinely handle a diatomaceous earth product named Celite. I keep wanting to type Celite instead of diatomaceous earth. You can imagine why.

The Welcome-to-April Garden

I'm not going to make it to 300 blog posts by the end of the year at my current rate of blogging. Twitter sucked away the simple link-oriented micro-blog posting I would do here from time to time. I have to raise my game and pick up the pace a little bit. More hiking, more botanical gardens, more other gardens. More my garden.



The last bits of winter dormancy are ending. Vitis californica 'Roger's Red'



And all four of my vine maples (Acer circinatum) are leafing out.



Lots of new leaves budding out on evergreens, too. Meyer lemon:



and manzanita (Arctostaphylos pajaroensis).



I'm sorry to say that I don't have anything near the wildflower show that I had last year. I'm still working on it tho'. It might come later than usual this year.



Even the California poppies are way behind the times. 'Moonglow' from Larner Seeds.



These are the seedlings I'm managing most closely right now:



'Early Cherry' and 'Stupice' tomatoes, 'Autum Torch' amaranth, and the A. caudatus species 'Love Lies Bleeding', hanging basket lover Nolana paradoxa, and some Blazing Star wildflower starts, Mentzelia lindleyi.

I also have cucumber and squash starts, at the germination stage. In a week or two I'll have to pull the favas before they've made beans in order to plant the cucumbers. Well, I like cucumbers more than I like fava beans, and time is precious. Next year, I'll start favas earlier, in the place where I grow tomatoes. Then maybe I can harvest a crop of beans before I plant tomatoes which I start later anyway.



This is a South African bulb named Tritonia crocata. I bought a pot of it last year at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, and forgot about it. When the bladed leaves started coming up here and there, I didn't know what they were. I thought might be some weedy Crocosmia that blew in on the wind or something. Instead of pulling it, I decided to wait and see.



The growth is very upright, and offsets are many. I've been enjoying the flowers since getting back from Hawaii. Foliage is already dying back in the dry, hot exposure of the roof deck, but down in the garden it's all still green. The whole plant is only 6" tall. I think it might be a good bulb for edging, and I'm going to plant some of the offsets around the garden when this clump goes dormant soon.



I moved my little Mediterranean bulb pan off to the side for the rest of the year, although it still has a 'Little Beauty'.



I think I like 'Little Beauty' a little bit more than I like 'Little Princess'.



(I added some of the Crocus 'NB' to the pan, so that will be in the mix next year.)

Down in the garden, Freesia are everywhere.



And this is the Narcissus I'm enjoying the most right now. It almost looks like columbine to me.



Some creature of the night is munching on my lettuces which does not thrill me.



Were you wondering if Cobaea scandens is still blooming? Is it ever.



I only wish my passionflower vine had as much passion for flowering.



The "It-plant" of 2006, Cerinthe major 'purpurascens' self sows freely and seems to have found some nice, not in-my-way places to grow this year. For that, I and the bees who love it are very grateful. I don't like having to pull it out of inconvenient places. You can transplant it easily tho', so that's a benefit.



The bees are still getting a lot of action on the Ceanothus too. I keep thinking that plant's flowering is over for the year, but no, it's not.