Lettuce and Peas Experiment

(or, Jade vs Ninja Bunnies of Doom)

Alright, I planted before we are really, truly past the last frost date.  
Don't make that face.  I told you I was weak.

My dear friend Kitch, wife of BFH, has an amazing garden.  Every year she produces lovely veg for her family, including lettuce.  Last year, I asked her for her secret.  She said 'lettuce box'.

Now, I have planted lettuce in the garden a time or two.  And what do you suppose happens?  Rabbits. We live near a pond.  These things happen.

I've hung shiny things.  Rabbits eat lettuce.  I've gathered hair from all our brushes, and wound it between the plants.  Rabbits eat lettuce.  I've visited the homes of friends with cats, and collected cat hair for between plants.  Rabbits eat lettuce.  I've stuck noisy things in garden.  Rabbits destroy the noisy things, eat lettuce.  Decoy food on other side of yard?  Eaten, along with lettuce.   Lettuce in planter at front of house.  Dessication.  But no rabbits.  

They ate the beans in the garden instead.  ALL OF THEM.

Ahem.  Sorry about that.

This year? This year will be different!  This year, I shall plant many numerous containers of lettuce, and also peas and beans.  Some of them will be on the back deck.  One is already planted:

Romaine lettuce at one end, Bibb at the other.  In the back are climbing peas, that will (allegedly) get up to six feet (nearly 2 meters) high.  In the front are shorter peas that may not actually sprout because the seeds are from last year.  In between are dwarf sunflowers, also from last year.  At the ends I've stuck bean seeds.  They are from this year, but I do not expect very much from them.

Climbing peas in a window box?
Yes!
Am I off my nut? 
Quite possibly!  Ninja Bunnies of Doom will do that to you.

See that mesh-stuff?  It's a kind of trellis.  I intend to unroll it as the plants sprout, feeding out more line as required, until it is eventually stapled to the pergola above the deck.  I don't want to put it up too soon, as it almost clear when unrolled, and difficult to see.  It shows up nicely against the cedar post, but disappears against the glass.  We have a lot of birds visiting the yard.  Many of them seem not particularly bright to begin with, and having what seems to me far too much like a nearly-transparent gill net floating in their way is just wrong.

But this year, I want to get at least some lettuce.

Stoopid Ninja Bunnies of doom.