"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

Maybe that's what I've got. In all fairness, it wasn't the tree's fault -
it was mine. The only place I could locate my vegetable garden was in a
spot which is downwind of the tree, relative to the prevailing October
wind. Just when lettuce and other greens are getting really tasty, the
tree also thinks it's time to drop needles. The wind slings them right
into the hearts of the plants. No more simply washing lettuce - they need
to be un-darted. :-)

I can see how a lettuce head full of conifer needles could be a pain
(literally and figuratively) . Perhaps you may want to cover your lettue bed
with some row cover to keep the needles out of the heads? that should fix
the problem much more easily than having to resort to bieng rid of the tree.