We do need to get "back to the garden" and off of our various rage tangents... not to underestimate the power of a good rage tangent, but it occurred to me the other day as i was frothing on about the squirrels, it was in fact the slugs that were hammering away on the melon, zucchini, peppers, chard, strawberries and other lesser vegetables and fruits. It's the problem with rage gardening, you become too focused on one thing, which creates opportunities for others.
I have been on a fairly aggressive slug killing frenzy for the last few nights. There are two tuna tins countersunk into the garden full of beer, there are 2 melon rinds sitting as bait and i go out every couple of hours into the night to squash and kill. As a bonus when you crush a slug on a rock it then becomes food for other slugs, or a decoy so you can easily go out and crush it turning 1 carcase into two.
I also ripped down a lot of the vegetation at the back of the garden as it made for a nice shady area for the slugs to hide out in the day and use as a base to attack the garden. I will need to put a barrier up to the overgrown and unattended yard that is kitty corner to the garden... in time.
A classic case of failure being good, or at least the threat of failure being good. It all came down to the broccoli... you see as a pacific north west gardener, broccoli had always been one of my most productive crops... in fact i only threw 3 in the garden because i didn't want to overdue it... as of now one is dead and the other 2 are on life support, so then i thought well perhaps i will try squash and melon (farther south)... might work. But the slugs went to town and woke me up... yes this is war... the melon might not survive, i think the zucchini might. Now that I'm an active participant killing 3-4 slugs an hour into the night for the past 5 nights, i am seeing a rebound of the plants. With decoys and traps, a headlamp and a jovial spirit of trash talking slugs as you terminate their existence, a Man gardener can have a good time rounding the corner on a problem he has.
Too much work? Nonsense! All of life's reoccurring problems are that way, and they take regimented discipline to overcome. Probably why religion works for some.. stay focused, do what needs to be done. I trust myself to do the right thing, and in the event i do the wrong thing i trust myself to find my way out of it. I almost used the word "weasel" instead of "find"... it was a little joke given that weasels are farmer pests, but the weasel comes across as dishonest, or "snake like", when in reality if you fuck up you need to make amends... you need to right the wrongs and you don't accomplish that on sly actions.
Peas are doing well, and it might be a tomato kind of town... in bad news category we have this... spinach is bolting... little runt spinach plants bolting. Is it the clay, or are they two densely planted? I think it's hard to get water in clay soil so whatever the signal is (stress of some sort), the plant thinks it's a goner so it tries to make seed with it's dwindling time on earth.
It always pays to be a patient man planting... space the dam seeds out. Give each plant some real estate to live thrive and survive. If i'm the man i say i am, i will have to thin tomorrow... meaning i must pull out plants so that each plant has space to thrive... if i fail to do that then i am a sissy.
Red onions have taken a fair hit... squirrel issue i believe. Garlic might need better drainage but seems to be doing well... no garlic has yet to try to flower.
I filed in a whole pile of random beans... a package of seeds to be exact the other day. I just went random... i avoided the random squirrel holes. In reality, I'm trying to find out what will work in this garden. Beans, i would think will do well, but i have been wrong before. At the same time i have been putting in some pretty big efforts on the night defending lately. It was about 45 minutes ago i was in the garden... i shall go out there now and lets do a tally.
OK these are the facts.. 1 am: It's rained since last time i was out there, and i found one massive slug on the melon rind and rather than crush it i tossed it into the beer filled tuna dish. i then did the rounds and when i came back the slug has escaped and was heading towards my melon plant that is on life support. So i crushed that slug on a rock and i am now dead sure it won't be a problem anymore.
it's a strange life but somebody has to live it.
I have been on a fairly aggressive slug killing frenzy for the last few nights. There are two tuna tins countersunk into the garden full of beer, there are 2 melon rinds sitting as bait and i go out every couple of hours into the night to squash and kill. As a bonus when you crush a slug on a rock it then becomes food for other slugs, or a decoy so you can easily go out and crush it turning 1 carcase into two.
I also ripped down a lot of the vegetation at the back of the garden as it made for a nice shady area for the slugs to hide out in the day and use as a base to attack the garden. I will need to put a barrier up to the overgrown and unattended yard that is kitty corner to the garden... in time.
A classic case of failure being good, or at least the threat of failure being good. It all came down to the broccoli... you see as a pacific north west gardener, broccoli had always been one of my most productive crops... in fact i only threw 3 in the garden because i didn't want to overdue it... as of now one is dead and the other 2 are on life support, so then i thought well perhaps i will try squash and melon (farther south)... might work. But the slugs went to town and woke me up... yes this is war... the melon might not survive, i think the zucchini might. Now that I'm an active participant killing 3-4 slugs an hour into the night for the past 5 nights, i am seeing a rebound of the plants. With decoys and traps, a headlamp and a jovial spirit of trash talking slugs as you terminate their existence, a Man gardener can have a good time rounding the corner on a problem he has.
Too much work? Nonsense! All of life's reoccurring problems are that way, and they take regimented discipline to overcome. Probably why religion works for some.. stay focused, do what needs to be done. I trust myself to do the right thing, and in the event i do the wrong thing i trust myself to find my way out of it. I almost used the word "weasel" instead of "find"... it was a little joke given that weasels are farmer pests, but the weasel comes across as dishonest, or "snake like", when in reality if you fuck up you need to make amends... you need to right the wrongs and you don't accomplish that on sly actions.
Peas are doing well, and it might be a tomato kind of town... in bad news category we have this... spinach is bolting... little runt spinach plants bolting. Is it the clay, or are they two densely planted? I think it's hard to get water in clay soil so whatever the signal is (stress of some sort), the plant thinks it's a goner so it tries to make seed with it's dwindling time on earth.
It always pays to be a patient man planting... space the dam seeds out. Give each plant some real estate to live thrive and survive. If i'm the man i say i am, i will have to thin tomorrow... meaning i must pull out plants so that each plant has space to thrive... if i fail to do that then i am a sissy.
Red onions have taken a fair hit... squirrel issue i believe. Garlic might need better drainage but seems to be doing well... no garlic has yet to try to flower.
I filed in a whole pile of random beans... a package of seeds to be exact the other day. I just went random... i avoided the random squirrel holes. In reality, I'm trying to find out what will work in this garden. Beans, i would think will do well, but i have been wrong before. At the same time i have been putting in some pretty big efforts on the night defending lately. It was about 45 minutes ago i was in the garden... i shall go out there now and lets do a tally.
OK these are the facts.. 1 am: It's rained since last time i was out there, and i found one massive slug on the melon rind and rather than crush it i tossed it into the beer filled tuna dish. i then did the rounds and when i came back the slug has escaped and was heading towards my melon plant that is on life support. So i crushed that slug on a rock and i am now dead sure it won't be a problem anymore.
it's a strange life but somebody has to live it.
i love this. my grandma used to use the beer trick with the slugs. my girlfriend just hucks them into traffic. nasty woman.
ReplyDelete