Wasps would have two reasons to be around lettuce. One reason is water (for mud/paper nest building), but wasps would normally gather water/mud from the ground, not the plants. The second reason is that many wasps eat caterpillars; If your leaves have any holes in them, caterpillars are around. Wasps can "smell" damaged/chewed leaves from a great distance and it is possible the watering makes tiny fractures in the delicate lettuce leaves. The wasps would be fooled into checking it out. Wasps spend the entire summer bobbing up and down at our vinyl roof gutters. They do this by the hour, to no apparent benefit. So your lettuce-leaf wasps may be barking up the wrong tree also.

Hi coco, I couldn't help but tell you that most my palms do not do well in a very peaty mix...I use a 5.1.1. mix that allows excellent drainage, holds it's structure for a very long time, and allows for the roots to my palms to flourish. It also allows me to fertilize without fear of salt build up and saves me a lot of aggrivation with discolored or yellowing leaves, and or burnt leaf tips.. I linked a thread for you from the conatiner forums that might shed some light on how soilless mixes work.. I am assuming your plant is in a container? Also, lava rock, stones, or anything else at the bottom of your container does not promote drainage, but just takes up room in the pot where your roots might have been able to grow to..It also pushes your perched water table higher into the pot. All soil mixes with very fine particles hold a PWT which in turn is the culprit to root rot if not careful..They also compact very quickly, suffocating the roots. It also causes nutrient defficiencies... If you can, use a wooden dowel to check your moisture in your pots, and you might be suprised to see that there is a lot more moisture into the root zone than you might think when you think your soil is dry with the finger method.. If it were me, I would transplant ASAP into a better soilless mix while it is early in the season.. Good luck Mike Here is a link that might be useful: soil discussion

The worst is when you mess with a recipe and the result is FANTASTIC...but then you can't remember exactly what it was that you did. :( I messed up making lemon bars once. This time, it wasn't on purpose. There were two lemon bar recipes in the book, one on each page. One was for traditional lemon bars, the other for a lemon-cheesecake type of bar. I started making one, and ended up finishing the other...no, I really don't know how I did it that...and the resulting bars were absolutely delicious. Never been able to make them again.

"It's not about being within your rights, because of course you are within your rights to disengage, it's about doing what's best for everyone involved, and they are NOT the same thing." Sometimes it IS the best for everyone involved to disengage. Sometimes, it makes matters worse to force yourself upon someone simply because you married one of their parents. In a perfect world, blended families would blend... stepparents would love & treat kids as their own (& I think most mother's do...) as a mom, I want to 'mother' my stepdaughter as if she were my own. The problem is, I raised my daughter differently than her mother has raised her & my efforts to form a relationship or 'mother' her are resented. Is she sacrificing a relationship with me? She didn't ask me to be in her life & she would probably be treating ANY woman my DH married the way she treats me... so, yes it's not personal. But, for three years I have searched for solutions & answers to make things better ~ to have a relationship with her, but it progressively gets worse. I can easily relate to Thurman more & more, which disturbs me as I love children & never thought I could feel that way. It is not a stepparents job to placate children that have issues with their parents... and many children of divorce have issues of varying degree. Personally, I think it is the parent's fault when the child is allowed to behave rudely to an adult or when they are allowed to act entitled. If the parents would teach their children instead of overindulging them out of guilt, the children would be better off. My son tried to have an attitude with my DH in the beginning of our relationship but I made it clear to him that I will not tolerate him being rude or disrespectful. There has to be basic amount of respect... not as a parental figure or stepparent, but as a human being. Too often, children are allowed to treat a stepparent poorly because "they didn't pick them" or "it was forced on them, of course they resent that person" but the parent that makes those kinds of excuses for their child to be rude & disrespectful, thereby approving of it are doing their children an disservice. As much as I disliked my son's stepmom, I did not allow him to talk poorly of her or treat her badly.... and I REALLY didn't like her at all. But, to allow him to be rude or ungrateful when he expected her to buy him things, take him places, be nice to him when he's there... that would be teaching him how to treat people badly. As his mom, it was my job to teach him right from wrong. In my SD's case, I think her mom has played a tremendous role in the disintegration of her daughter's happiness. I continue to do things for her... just things I would do for any other child in the world. I expect her to treat me as she would treat any of her father's friends. In time, maybe things will get better but it is likely only going to happen if BM is out of the picture or SD has had enough of her mom's lies & manipulations. At this point, SD has chosen to follow her mom's example and it has become toxic to everyone, including SD. I can't fix it & my involvement has only made it worse for her. And yes, it does break my heart.