Slug soup and other creative pest measures

I HATE slugs. I know it's somewhat irrational, the fierce feelings these slimy creeping plant eaters conjure up in me, but they really bring out the worst in me. I know there are many very sane ways to attack a slug problem--from ground-up eggshells spread around plants, to flour spread on top of the soil and from commercial slug bait to beer-filled saucers.

This last option reminds me of a swim-up bar and seems a bit too festive for a mortal enemy. I've actually tried this in the past and it does work, but I really got some strange looks when I went to the party store and asked them to point me in the direction of their cheapest beer. Of course, I wasn't going to spend top dollar on an import or specialty brew!

Today I was in the garden doing some clean-up and harvesting some goodies for dinner when I found several families of slugs living in the holes where I pulled carrots from yesterday. Then, when I went to cut some corn mache for salads I found at least three zillion living under the leaves. That's when I became slug-ocidal.


While I know that it probably wasn't good for the soil, I dropped some canning salt down into the carrot holes and found a perverse joy in watching the slugs sizzle. But, beyond that, if they were laying eggs down there, hopefully the salt took care of the next generation as well.


My disdain for slugs is long-lived and I've used multiple methods to control them over the years like the saucers of beer for them to slime-up to, become drunk and drown; stabbing them with random sticks and crushing them with rocks. In addition to the salt in the holes, today's method also included slug soup.

This creative approach started with me scooping them up with a hand shovel and dropping them by the dozens into an empty ice cream pail. I then filled the pail with water, sealed it and placed in an area that gets a lot of sun and that's very hot. As I write this, I realize that I may be taking this loathing to an extreme, but there's something strangely satisfying in finding new ways to get rid of my garden nemesis.

Now that I've calmed down a bit, I decided to do some research about slugs to see if they have any redeeming value whatsoever. Guess what I found out? They don't! Here's a brief primer on the slug:

An information sheet from Cornell says that gray garden slugs were brought to America from Europe in the 1800s. My question is WHY? Why would they do that? The only logical explanation is that the slugs were actually stowaways that made there way to this country on the plant matter the Europeans brought with them when they came to America to make a new life.

Slugs have an average lifespan of nine to thirteen months and if they have enough cover can survive mild winters. Slugs are hermaphroditic, which means they have has both male and female reproductive organs. A slug could start out as a male, then become both male and female,
and finally become solely female. There are also some slug species that can self-fertilize, or, produce offspring without needing to mate with the opposite sex. After mating, the slug will lay 8 - 60 clear, jelly-like eggs in sheltered areas on the ground. An adult slug can lay 300 - 500 eggs during its lifetime. With numbers like these, it's no wonder they get so numerous if left to their own devices.

Garden slugs increase in size during summer and reach sexual maturity in late autumn. According to some information I found on Texas' extension service website, slugs only reproduce in early spring and they tend to reproduce faster on alkaline to neutral soils than on acid soils.

Now that I know that rabbits have nothing on slugs when it comes to procreating, it's time to take a more rational approach to control. Slugs like it cool and damp, which is why mulch in a garden can be a challenge. On one hand, it's great for the plants, but on the other hand it's also great for the slugs.

Slugs do have some natural enemies; and if you're OK with having them in your garden, they're a good way to naturally control the slug population. Toads, garter snakes and ground beetles all enjoy making a meal of these slimy pests. I like this method of control because it's natural and it doesn't require adding chemicals to the garden. Then again, finding them and smashing them doesn't hurt the environment either!



How about you? Do you have unusual ways to ridding your garden and landscape beds of slugs? I'd love to hear about your approach.

Free garden stakes, just look around your flower beds

Although I prefer to grow edibles in our landscape, I am a sucker for beautiful flowers and as a result have a variety of lilies - day, tiger, oriental, etc.
Today I was spending some of my garden time cleaning up the spent day lilies and trying to figure out what I could use to stake the pole beans and cucumbers when I had an AHA moment. Daylily stems are sturdy, tall, and free!

Viola, plant stakes. I used them for a cucumber that I have in a container and to help accommodate some of the vines on the pole beans, since the teepee I "built" earlier this season is now much too small.
I gently inserted the stems into the soil and quickly learned to hold them at the bottom or they will bend and break. I also found that I could prop them into an existing planting - the bean teepee to easily increase the height.

Near the top of the picture that's above, you can see the joints at the top of the stem where the lily flowers once bloomed. Now they make a great structure to help train vining plants.
As a frugal (OK, downright cheap) person, I couldn't be more thrilled with the results.

What AHA moments have you had in your garden this season?

Gloom & Doom for Home Gardeners? I Don't Think So.

Twitter is “all-a-twitter” about a Boston Globe article today that is one-sided and poorly researched at best. Yep, I’m fired up!

The author’s premise is that gardening is uber expensive and that people in general don’t have the skill or knowledge to grow food plants. Give me a break!

Expensive? Well I suppose it is if you’re shopping in some designer plant store and are willing to pay $5 for 1 lettuce plant as the author tells her readers she did! I can’t stop choking and sputtering on that, but I don’t want to attack anyone’s intellect or common sense. Instead, I’m going to take a factual approach to cost and knowledge needed to grow your own food plants.

The Globe article was based upon the following purchases in bold & I’ve added a reality check following each:

9 plants (tomatoes, peppers & red lettuce): $30 All of these plants can easily be grown from seed, and you can purchase seed packet for less than $1 a piece! Way less, if you’re shopping sales, etc. Even if you want to purchase plants, there’s absolutely no reason to this much money.

Tomato cage: $3 Tomato cages can be purchased for less than $1, or you can create your own supports for close to free with sturdy sticks (wind fall from trees), dowels, and even old broom handles that are driven into the soil next to the plant. Then use old cloth (pantyhose works great) to gently tie the plant to the stake. The pantyhose is stretchy and soft so it doesn’t damage the tomato stem as it grows.

Organic potting mix: $9.50 There are definitely less expensive ways to go here as well. You don’t have to purchase name brand, and that will save a few bucks right there. I’ve always had great luck with a mix of basic soil and some peat moss. Check around your area, many towns have free compost sites where residents take their leaves, lawn clippings, etc. to dispose of. After they dump the waste, they pick up fresh compost (made from last year’s yard waste) to enrich their garden (or container) soil.

Organic plant food: $12. I’ve used a slow release food that cost less than $4.99 for a container a couple of years ago. I add it to the soil when planting and it feeds the plant all season long. By the way, I’m still using the food from that $5 container 3 years later and I grow way more than 9 plants each year.

Three 16-inch terra cotta pots: $90. “Holy Moly, Andy” is all I have to say to this expense. There are much more economical pots available. And, while terra cotta looks nice, it adds a new degree of difficulty to keeping your plants happily watered. Moisture evaporates out the sides of terra cotta so the soil dries out much faster than in pots made of other materials.

Which leads me to the last expense our Boston Globe writer called out …

Water bill: $100 Yes, plants need lots of water to thrive, but it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Be smart about how you water. Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening method suggests filling a bucket with water and letting the sun warm it before using it. Then pour a cup of water on each plant at the base. The warm water does not shock the plant’s roots and you have control of how much water you use. As a general rule, using an overhead sprinkler is wasteful because it rains water down on the leaves where it evaporates and only a small portion actually makes it to the plants roots.

Knowledge and Experience? As someone’s Grandma would say, “Poppycock!”

I have a lot of respect for horticulturists, agriculture professionals, botanists and the like, but you don’t need specialized vocational training to have a successful garden as the article suggests using a quote from Bobby Wilson, president of the American Community Gardening Association. According to the article, he told CNN the Chia-pet generation isn’t ready for the Blue Ribbon Prize just yet.

“Many of the people that want to get into the gardening and greening movement right here have never gained the skills,” he said. “Many of them came up in an era where there was no vocational education, so there was no need to learn anything about horticulture or agriculture.”

I really hope that this quote was taken out of context.

Free information and help is yours for the taking…

There is a wealth of information out there. Start at the library for free books. Read the back of seed packets, which have basic growing information and directions. Ask your local extension for advise. Here’s a link to a list of each extension service in the United States. http://www.ediblegardenlandscaping.com/extensionlist

Ask other gardeners in your area what works best for them. Gardeners love to share their knowledge and help others learn from their mistakes. Even if you don’t know anyone near you who gardens, there is an amazing amount of knowledge on the Internet. In addition to the articles and information on my website http://www.ediblegardenlandscaping.com here are just a few other helpful resources:

Joe Lamp'l from the DIY Network has been blogging about how to plant a victory garden for $25 or less: http://joegardener.typepad.com/dailycompost

Mel Bartholomew’s Square Food Gardening Site at www.squarefootgardening.com/

The Growing Food Guide blog at www.growingfoodguide.com/

Great information about victory gardens and growing your own at www.redwhiteandgrew.com/

Better Homes & Gardens gardening information online at www.bhg.com/gardening/

Mother Earth News’ website: www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening.aspx

And, a blog for urban gardeners: http://urbangardencasual.com/

As always, I look forward to your comments and feedback!

A Ha! Something Does Grow Under Pine Trees

We've spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks working in clients yards, cleaning up the fall/winter debris and getting things spruced up for the 7 months that we actually love living here in Minnesota's Lake Country. I actually enjoy spring clean-up time and it's been particularly fun for me identifying what our clients already have in their yards as the plants are just poking through the soil.

Rhubarb is plentiful in this area and in all the landscapes we've worked on, rhubarb is coming back to life exactly where you'd expect... in a garden bed, against the fence, in a far corner of the back yard, etc. I have yet to see a plant that thrives under a tall pine tree like my rhubarb plants. Clearly the pine needles naturally provide the soil acidity that rhubarb plants crave (see horticultural notes below).

I love watching rhubarb come to life each spring,

when it's crinkled up leaves unfurl and colorful stems emerge.

A Ha! A great solution for a perennial landscaping conundrum ... nothing seems to grow under pine trees. In fact, the colorful stems and the large showy leaves of rhubarb make a great foundation planting, adding great interest (and flavor) beneath a tree that is known for large bare spots surrounding it.

My point in all this is that you don't have to conform to the norm when planting your edible plants. You don't have to have the perfect garden patch to grow foods you enjoy and are ultimately more nutritious than anything you can buy at the local grocery store. I'll be keeping track of the rhubarb here throughout the season and will include harvesting tips, recipes and preservation information when it's ready to be enjoyed!

A few horticultural facts about rhubarb: It is a cool weather perrenial that does not do well in warmer climates. Rhubarb tolerates most soils but grows best in fertile, well-drained soils that are high in organic matter. Rhubarb is rather tolerant of soil acidity but does best in slightly to moderately acid soil. (from rhubarbinfo.com).

Recycle & Reuse in an Edible Landscape

You really have to check this out. It's an amazingly simple idea. Reclaimed gutters to plant greens, lettuce, low growing edibles. And it looks nice, too. These would also be great mounted on a fence...a new take on the living fence. Enjoy.

Temperature Swings Are Like Mood Swings - You Never Know What You're Going to Get

Springtime in the upper midwest could mean 80 degrees and sunny, 50 degrees and threatening, or 30 degrees and a foot and a half of snow! It's so much like mood swings that you have to be ready to take cover at any time! Case in point, it was 80 degrees and absolutely gorgeous yesterday - a great day to work on the edible landscape. Today, it's in the 40s, cloudy and threatening storms. The rest of the weekend we're looking at rain and snow mixed...but hopefully not just snow.

This time of year is tough on a gardener who longs to get outside and plant things, yet knows it's just too early. To plant now is to commit herbicide, so we wait. And we tend to our seedlings started indoors. And we wait. The good news is that we're just a couple weeks away from having to worry about snow for awhile.

This is especially good because I have a couple new beds to put in this year and my Pineapple Tomatillo seeds should arrive any day. I found these in the Cook's Garden catalog and I'm dying to try them out. They're supposed to have a flavor similar to pineapple. This is just one of the many things I'll keep you posted on as my edible landscape comes back to life and is embellished with more delicious plants.

'til later
Happy Gardening!