My Old Enemy....

For those of you who followed me on my adventures last year, you may remember my nemesis the Slug. The Slug is back, in force. I planted 96 gorgeous little lettuces last week. I have 4 left. They got devoured within a day or so of being planted. BASTARDS. Oops, sorry! What language! If you heard what I was saying in my head, you would probably drop dead from shock;-)

I started hand picking the little buggers again, with the plan of feeding them to my Muscovy ducks. The naughty Muscovys rejected them! Muscovys are supposed to love slugs! I was very disappointed in that. So, I filled a bucket with water and a bit of dish soap, and started drowning them again. Makes for good compost, if nothing else. I also went and bought Safer's slug bait. Lots of it. About $120 worth so far. I hate doing it, even if it supposed to be dog and eco-friendly, but I have to, or I will lose every crop I plant. I have sold 12 CSA shares (YAY!!) and I need to make certain I have lots of yummy crops for them.

I am off to the greenhouse today to plant more lettuces and mesculin, plus start on my warm weather crops - squash, zucchini, cuc's, melons, etc. It is hailing right now, but I have been promised that spring will be here any time now....

Saved

Little cabbages two weeks ago. They are now alot bigger, and closer to harvest time!

Well, the rain we had last week was fantastic! It completely watered everything, and filled my well up! I can stop worrying - for this year, at least! I feel so much better about things. It is supposed to get really hot again this week, so I'm super glad the rain came when it did. I am still being frugal with it, though, I don't want to abuse my water priviliges!
I had an entire week off watering, so that was nice, too. I had to start watering again this morning, but because the rain did such a good job, I only have to water each bed for about 20 minutes - instead of the 40 minutes I had to do before the drought.

The deer have been out munching quite a bit lately. I obviously have been too lax with the deer control. I need to get on it! They have stripped my new fruit trees more than once - when I have time this fall, I guess I had better fence them in - and some of my veggies got a good munching last nite. Damn deer. They are so quiet and sneaky, even the dogs don't hear them coming in the middle of the night.

I have tried planting kohlrabi for the first time this year. I think I might even get some little kohlrabi's! I've been researching the companion planting, so have planted the little kohl's with beets. Both seem to be doing very well. Can't wait to see what a kohlrabi tastes like. Never had one!

There was a bunch of slugs out this morning... all were having sex. Ooooh, that made me mad! How dare they procreate when there are so many of them to begin with? They died. They all died. I massacred them. I don't even feel bad about it! Slugs having sex is NOT something you need to see early in the morning. Just so you know.

Panic averted... for the moment

Well, it took about an hour, but water started coming out of my hose again. I didn't put my head under the covers like I threatened to do, but was it ever tempting! Instead, I started looking at Craigslist, UsedNanaimo and Kijiji. Low and behold, a guy just over in Chemainus (about 10 minutes from here) was selling some used 100 gallon water tanks! So, I ran right over and bought the 2 he had left. They aren't the full solution, but they will help! I go over tomorrow to pay him and help him load them up... he is going to deliver them for me. I am going to arrange them under the rainspout, so they will fill up (IF we ever get rain again) or if the worst was to happen, and I run out of water, at least if I have to get some trucked in, I will have somewhere for the delivery guy to put it!!

I decided not to give up on the gardening thing. Last year, I panicked, and started harvesting everything early, afraid I was going to run out of water. This year, I am just going to be very frugal with the water, and hope it lasts until the rains come again. I planted 3 beds of kale, some kohlrabi and some beets this morning - hand watered everything, so not a drop was wasted. It will take alot of my time, but I will continue to hand water until the bitter end...

I am also starting more seeds for my fall/ spring crops. I wish I had more seed trays, but I am just making do with what I have right now. I have been using my EM and my mycchroizzal fungi with everything I have planted, so we'll see how big of a difference that makes! I also went around the entire garden the other nite, and sprayed EVERYTHING with the EM. We shall see!

While I was having my panic attack yesterday, I saw the coolest thing... a snake zooming away with a huge slug in it's mouth! I ran in to grab my camera, but of course when I got out, the snake was gone. No wonder there are so many big, fat snakes around this year... easy pickings with all the slugs around here! It would've made a great picture, though.

A few days ago, I suddenly remembered I had planted a grape plant last fall. I had completely forgotten about it... bad farmer! Expecting the worst, I went to check on it. It was completely covered with weeds and grass, but I think that's what saved it - shaded it from the worst of the heat. It was alive! And looking healthy, to boot! Amazing. I watered it, and talked to it for a while, telling it it was a good little grape plant, and hopefully it will continue to flourish, and I'll get some grapes in a year or two!

ATTACK of the slugs!

HELP!
Yesterday morning, I was walking the gardens, checking everything over, making sure all was ok. I was so pleased by what I saw for the most part. Little lettuces, all green and growing, little carrots and peas and cabbages, all looking fantastic. I had a brief moment of pride there.... then it ended. My gorgeous arugula, which was looking fabulous the day before had disappeared. Gone. Vanished in the night. Was it birds? Was it slugs? Was it deer? I was looking forward to my first harvest in just a few weeks. I checked the beer slug traps. In them were hundreds and hundreds of little dead slug bodies. So, I thought Great! My little traps are doing their job, and I guess I'll just replant the arugula.

Then it started to rain. Crap! Within minutes, THOUSANDS of slugs were all over the place. I was madly hand picking them, and dropping them into a deep bucket of water with dish soap in it to drown them. I was out there for over 2 hours, until it got too dark to see the little bastards. I'm pretty certain trap or no trap, slugs were what got my arugula. It was an invasion! You've seriously never seen so many slugs in one place in your life.

This morning, I went to the liquor store, and bought a bunch more beer. I made a ton more traps, and set them up. I emptied the old ones of all the dead little bodies and refilled the beer. I am on a MISSION, folks. I refuse to let the beasties eat all my profits before I even get a crop. I'm all for sharing, but this is ridiculous! I plan on going out tonite to hand pick what the traps don't get. My only long term hope is that once all the grass and weeds between the beds are killed, the slugs won't have as much to eat, and maybe they will think my garden is just to far to go for a meal. Luckily, the weatherman says it will get hot and sunny for the next week, so hopefully I will have a chance to replant and get my little lettuces and arugulas going again before the next invasion.

Here's to hoping.