How the Garden Grows.....

"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves."
                                        ~Mahatma Gandhi

 Veggies: from left to right: Beets ( can't see them much , little red leaves  squeaking up thru  dirt), lettuce, radishes.More lettuce. A huge row of sunflowers, broccoli ( you can see them waving  feathery hats), row of knee hi sweet peas, Campanula down-right ( big ole clump that will bloom all summer), Centaurea close to fence, cabbages ( just out of range). VERBASCUM, down-left, poking its leaves thru the fence. Oh, and carrots ( really slow to get going, on other side of sunflowers) . And not just any carrots, heritage ones, purples, blues, oranges........

The garden grows. The bees buzz. 

 The sky swirls.

 And the cats roam. Spencer still likes his yellow cup.

 And the slugs....well...they slug it out.  Nothing but a can of beer won't cure.A can of beer for the slugs, that is......

 This year I'm trying real slug bait beer traps, not homemade versions.  These ones sink into the dirt. I'm also trying real beer, rather than non-alcoholic. I have yet to check the beer hot tub to see how it is working.

 I may find worms in the trap. Or beetles. They like beer too. Apparently.

 Grapes are graping. ( Not sure if that is a term, but then, explains it better).Smokey avails himself of the arbour. Daily. He has that bird's eye view....

 Sunflowers are like little umbrellas these days.

 The cat plant thrives. He still likes the pot. He doesn't seem to need re-potting....

 Sunflowers beg to be replanted. I just haul them up  out of the masses and put them somewhere else.  Douse them with a goodly dose of water to get them to reset their roots. And try to get their stems to stay upright. Like little toy soldiers on parade.

 "It was such a pleasure to sink one's hands into the warm earth, to feel at one's fingertips the possibilities of the new season." ~Kate Morton ( 1976-) " The Forgotten Garden"

 Centaurea is much slower this year . But up it comes. The new seed I planted is even slower than the surviving counterparts.  I'm thinking I will reseed  in about two weeks to keep a continuous supply blooming if I can. 

 Cranesbill , Many people do not realize that this perennial geranium  has potential healing powers in is roots; called a a powerful ingredient called tannin, an anti-inflammatory.

 Cranesbill will turn the yard into  a woodland paradise. The bees are drawn to it. And anything we can do to attract bees......This year, I've noticed  bees are humming more than ever ,as the cranesbill takes up more and more space. More bees. This is great. Which is fine by me. Good to preserve  a natural perennial. I think I started with ONE  small plant, and it has spread on the wings of bees. I couldn't be happier.

 SWEET PEAS  spreading  little wings. Faster than last year. Everyone's proabably tired of my sweet peas. But it's just not the same without them. This year, I spread them around. I want to see what corners of the garden will work. I have rows and rows of the Knee Hi version,like on the left, and troughs of the Climbers, like the ones on the right.  

 DAHLIAS, ROSES, SUNFLOWERS, Centaurea, all meshed together in the front bed where it is warm, and safe and protected.  I was  worried Dahlias would not grow very well ( that the soil was too soggy, or too sandy, or too something). But up they come.......time will tell......
 "My garden is my favourite teacher. "~Betsy Cañas Garmon, 

Photographs 2017

SLUGS ...UGH

 SLUGS. Can't live with them, can't live without them.  They're busy eating the marigolds I planted last week. Slugs love marigolds.  But I can't bring myself to use toxic slug killers. Slugs. Soft squishy bodies  sliding across pavement like  creatures from a horror film gone bad.

 "Come forth into the light of things and let NATURE be your teacher." ( William Wordsworth  1770-1850)

 I remember in high school we dissected slugs. We were supposed to find effective ways to kill them .Salt made them shrivel up.I never tried that again.

 Probably the smartest thing to do is to alter your garden WATERING SCHEDULE. Set the sprinkler system  to come on between 4-9am. or toddle out there in the early hours with a hose. The earth will dry out by night. Slugs love  the night.  That's when they party, and eat things. Like my marigolds.

 It's said that pieces of COPPER can be arranged around pots or tomatoes, or whatever you have growing. They won't crawl over the Copper.  Never tried it. Sounds a bit fussy.

BEER. This is what I use. It's pretty effective.  Take shells or plastic lids, set them into the dirt near where they are eating things ( like my marigolds). Then fill up  with beer.The shells and the lids. Not you.

 Use  beer in green houses as well. Slugs LOVE beer. It's like you invited them to a party with an open bar, just for them. They crawl into the yeasty liquid and drown.

 Don't use the non-alcoholic stuff. It doesn't seem to have the same punch.For the slugs, I mean.  Long time ago I heard that if you gathered up slugs at night and put them in  a pail of water, they would just float  and drown overnight. Not exactly. By next morning  they  vacated that pail and were back in the garden. (Eating my marigolds.)

Another great thing you can use is  something called DIATOMACEOUS EARTH. Fancy name for a dust that is basically dried up algae. You  toss it onto the garden; insects and slugs will roll around in it and then wander off to die. Dehydrating. Dessimating. Good.

 It's super in a spray bottle mix of water and the dust. Spray it on everything.  Good to use when the weather is dry and there is no chance of rain. It will just wash away.

 You COULD try SALT.  Get your lantern and toddle out in the dark of night. Don't step on the slugs. Take a salt shaker and sprinkle on any slugs you find.

 Use it only where the plants are being eaten the most. Not  a nice thing to do, by any means. But if you can't seem to deter the slugs, this will do the trick. Just don't look. Maybe have someone go out with you and hold the lantern, or flashlight. Or better yet, just try the BEER. On the slugs. Not you.

  Then there's SEAWEED. If you live near the ocean and can gather it at low tide.  It's great for mulching at the end of the season.

  The seaweed is, of course, salty and when it dries the slugs really avoid it.  When the weather turns scorching hot ( which it sometimes does these years)the seaweed will become crusty.  You can later till it into the earth.

 When I was little, and we would go the wild beaches of Sooke ,my mother would gather  kelp, with its long flowing "hair", and bring it back to put in the garden. I used to pretend the seaweeds were mermaids come up onto the shore. Little did they know they were destined to be slug repellent. We would lay out the kelp with their bulbous heads and flowing dreadlocks around the plants.Dried up, the "mermaids" resembled skeletons from the deep.

 OVERTURNED FLOWERPOTS seem to be a drawing card for slugs. I've never had success with it.  You tip up the edge of the pot with a rock, and the slugs are supposed to crawl inside. Put some grapefruit halves inside. They like the citrus apparently.  Usually I find wood bugs and worms inside. And the slugs still happily eating my marigolds.

 I think a good thing to try would be GARLIC repellents. It's potent. Garlic is amazing  and it's been known to do wonders in the garden. Don't toss around fresh garlic, look for garlic repellents at the hardware store.

 COFFEE GROUNDS seem to be popular.I don't use coffee. But if I did, I would use them  in conjunction with the BEER and the GARLIC and the SEAWEED. That way you  cover all bases. Hopefully, the slugs will co-operate. If they don't like one thing, maybe they will be impressed by another repellent . One of them is bound to work.

                           "I loafe and invite my soul..." (Walt Whitman   1819-1892)

 You could always try a BOARD. A big old slab of wood.  Slugs hide underneath the wood during the day, where they  siesta and dream about eating my marigolds.

 When it is turned over, there should be  slugs. If not, keep trying the BEER. On the slugs. Not you....

 Seems that slugs don't like LAVA Rock, or anything sharp and porous. Scatter it across the garden  so  it forms a barrier.  Not sure how well it works. You may have to use it with all the other ideas to figure out which one works.

 There's also something called an Electronic Slug fence. Uses a battery and so forth. Never tried it. Have seen it for sale in the feed store.  Much more fun putting out beer for the slugs. Or seaweed. Or  a board.

           Or let the cat chase the slugs. The cat will win.

 "After a debauch of thunder shower, the weather takes the pledge and signs it with a rainbow."                  (Thomas Bailey Aldrich   1836-1907)

 So you have a ton of choices to try for slugs: SEAWEED, a BOARD, BEER , GARLIC, DIATOMACEOUS EARTH ( DUST), SALT, LAVA,UPTURNED POTS,COPPER. Or you could just be like Spencer and simply leave the slugs be. Go nap on the porch. Go count  how many slug trails you can find. It all seems so daunting. SO much work. Yawwwwnnn. Besides, the crows and racoons will eat the slugs in the end. Gobbling them up like soft taffy......squish squish.

(Spencer)

 "None of us can find an outer place of peace, but be still. Here are the desert silences, the murmuring oceans, the wind-brushed moors, the mountain tops, all held in the centre of your being. " 
                                    (P.Brown 1928)