Early in the year B was given a lettuce to transplant in to the garden. It grew steadily to begin with then it bolted and ended up growing as tall as the apricot tree. (Its the tall thin stems with blue flowers from near the ground to the top of the tree) It eventually flowered and has produced hundreds of flowers over the season. The flowers are open early in the morning but by dinnertime they have shrivelled away, only to be succeeded the following day by more flowers. We have had lettuce flowers for at least two months, and only now do they seem to be finishing.
As the seeds develop the flower heads get top heavy and tilt their heads downwards. If the seeds dry well, and we can keep the garden mice from finding them, the birds will have plenty to eat later this year.
Another giant this year was a parsnip. A few parsnips seeded themselves amongst the runner beans. One plant bolted and grew as tall as the beans, about seven feet tall. It looked a lot like giant hogweed but it was definitely parsnip. It had dozens of flower heads and thousands of seeds. The beans growing at that end of the row didn't produce as good a crop as plants further along the row - no photograph gave a clear picture of the plant as it tangled its way through bean poles and bean plants.
Resolution for next year - weed more effectively.
