It is raining again at Northview. The guys can barely chop enough hay to feed the cows each day. We had two nice days...when the chopper was broken down and now rain, rain, rain.
If I haven't yet whined about the slugs let me do so now. I have a lush little patch of merveille de quatre saisons lettuce in a fifteen gallon half barrel right outside the back door. It is fantastic stuff with leaves as crisp and meaty as spinach yet so very delicate in flavor. I grew it from seed I saved last summer, which makes me quite smug. The slugs, which seem to undulate over the ground like sticky erasers devouring (and pooping on) all that they encounter, climb up the wet plastic of the tub and gnosh holes in every leaf. I have surrounded the tub with a solid ring of feed grade salt, which I thought was slowing them down.
Not. I just went out to take a picture of its leafy green and red perfection and it is covered with a blanket of them. Chewed to ribbons....and blackened with slug poo. I am disgusted. I have tried the old beer in a pie tin trick to no avail. Any of you good gardeners out there got any ideas?
I am afraid this is going to be a rough year for gardening. First a late frost on the thirtieth of May. Next striped cucumber beetles wiped out the squash. I just replanted yesterday. Now the slugs. (UGH)
Two weeks of dry weather would look good to me just now. Real good.
i know we're fattening up a local bunny...he/she been nibbling on whatever he/she wants.
ReplyDeleteand yes, dry weather would so welcomed here also!
...yesterday i overheard an elderly lady saying "we needed the rain"...c'mon, i think we've got enough!.....
sunny days of summer are on the way!
That's horrible. It must be so frustrating to see them eating your lettuce.
ReplyDeleteAnd that rain? You must feel like you're sloshing around every time you walk outside.
I'm praying for dry weather and dead slugs for you!
I'm sorry to hear of your frustrating weather. May those two week of dryness come soon!!
ReplyDeleteThe lettuce variety sounds wonderful, but not the slugs. That's too bad. Sounds like you've been fighting them in ways that should work. Hopefully you will soon have success.
Your grape leaf photo is lovely!
Don't know if it'll work, but here's a suggestion. Slop a few inches of old tractor grease on the bottom edge of the barrel. Maybe they won't be able to negotiate through it.
ReplyDeletenot sure, I leave the beer in the bottle and lay it on its side and that seems to work for me, I get beer pickled slugs, everytime! Has to be a market for them somewhere...
ReplyDeleteWe do not have many slugs here, but we do have NASTY large crickets and grasshoppers. Would you chickens eat the gross things?
ReplyDeleteThis is a hard year on crops. Just hard.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/
I have a friend who goes out with a flashlight and mallet and noshes the snails and slugs individually. I can't imagine myself doing that, but there you go.
ReplyDeleteI went to the garden and I hope I get the dust on the beatles before they do my squash in.
ReplyDeleteI have had various plants and "replants" turned into coleslaw twice this week by hail! My Early Girls will be Late Girls, if I'm lucky and my peppers are sulking. The joys of gardening in western South Dakota seem to echo those in central NY this year.
ReplyDeleteBoy, would a BLT out of the garden taste good!
Hang in there, we will prevail ;o)
I feel your misery with the slugs. They are everywhere here, but I'm not concerned about my plants. Slugs are the carriers of meningeal worm (originating in white tailed deer). Very serious repercussions for llamas which is why I have to give monthly ivermectin injections. Tomorrow is actually shot day. I saw so many today, all I could do was groan.
ReplyDeleteAnon, lot of them and woodchucks too. The mockingbirds don't like them though and go to great lengths to drive them off the lawn. lol
ReplyDeleteWe get so aggravated at the weather men, who haven't got the common sense God gave a goat. Always raving about how we needed the rain, as the river flows by, clogged with mud and tree trunks.
SC Momma, I am going to bring the lettuce up on the front porch, which is about four feet above the ground and pretty dry....then maybe they will stay away. Thanks for the good thoughts!
Jeanelle, thank you. I love the lettuce, which I bought from Pine Tree Garden Seeds. It is so pleasant to just pick and eat, without even any salad dressing.
akagaga, could work. The salt is working to some extent. They dry right up when they crawl over it. Trouble is there are enough of them to crawl over each other and the rain washes it away.
WW, I will have to try that.
Linda, I suspect they would. The wild ducks do. I can't let the chickens out to run though because we have a terrible chicken killing dog, left to us by my mother in law. She even manages to toll chickens to where she is tied inside the barn...then she eats them.
Jan, I have overcome my squeamishness enough to step on them, but there are literally thousands and thousands of them....nasty gooey things
Lisa, I am going to do that this time. I could not believe that they had totally devoured every single plant...except one tiny skeleton of half a leaf!
Caronline, Hail! Wow, at least we have been spared that. I was counting on a nice garden this summer, but things are moving pretty slow.
Teri, oh, my word, that is terrible! I never knew it. You must be sick at the outrageous numbers of them this year. They are like sticky, ucky, gooey mowers, just chowing down everything in their path.
I don't know if this works... I read it in a magazine yesterday. But they say if you take 2T. of Ivory Dish soap and put it in a 1 qt spray bottle then fill with water you won't have bug problems. Also grate the bars of Ivory if you have bunny troubles. Just sprinkle around the plants and they won't touch them. So they say... Also it won't change the PH of the soil like other soaps can.
ReplyDeleteWe've never really had any trouble with slugs so I don't know what would help there... Hope your having a great and dry weekend...
Sara, thanks, I will give that a try!
ReplyDelete