Gardening for lazy people #1: Lettuce Rockery

I hate waste and I love experimentation. As such, when I ran out of gardening area, I turned to the only bit of space I could find*. There was a pile of pebbles that were waiting to be moved. They had a bit of soil clinging to them but were basically just grubby pebbles. I knew they wouldn’t be moved for at least a month.

I had some lettuce seeds left in the bottom of a pack – not enough for a full row but enough to produce a few leaves. I decided to see whether they’d take on the pebbles, by scattering the seeds over the pebbles and watering them. And they have – see above. OK, the growing medium isn’t going to provide enough nutrients for them to grow into full lettuces but as cut-and-come again, it’ll work fine for at least a cropping or two.

 So, if you’re a really lazy gardener and fancy some home grown leaves, simply scatter lettuce seed (or indeed, rocket, sorrel or most herbs) over whatever bit of space you have and see what crops up. It’ll help if you water it every day, but if you’re lucky, the weather will do half the work for you.

*I’ve currently got three 1.2m x 0.6m raised beds – two shallow ones for salads and radishes, one deeper one for swede and carrot; one 0.6m2 deep planter for pumpkin and tomatoes; some extremely rocky and clay-ridden beds that are managing to sustain jasmine, strawberries, raspberry, blackcurrant, redcurrant and whitecurrant canes; and an even more rocky and clay ridden patch of earth piled on top of pebbles that’s happily supporting an abundance of outdoor-sown pea and bean canes and a couple of nasturtiums. I figure that if you treat plants mean from the outset, they’ll grow up strong – or won’t germinate at all, in which case you know not to try it again. I’ve also got various planters, indoor and outdoor, but more of that later.