Happy Birthday Blog - 1 year old today!

On this day last year, I started this blog.  I sent the link to all the people in my address book and hoped someone would read it.  It was, and still is, such a thrill to get comments and followers.  As I became more fluent in the World of Blog, I discovered that I could keep track of how many times a blog page was viewed (hits) and where in the world it was read. I love looking at the list of countries where people are reading my blog from - far flung places like Pakistan and Argentina.  Places where I have no connections, and yet someone has stumbled across the thoughts I have committed to words.  It's the magic of modern communications.

To mark this auspicious occasion, I decided to have a look at what was written last year and give some kind of an update.  This first post, and so much of my blog, discusses slugs, so following a discussion with fellow Master Gardener Trainees about slugs preferring expensive beer, I decided to carry out an experiment.

At the end of January, I planted seeds that I had saved from last years mixed leaf lettuce crop.  In a few days the ground was carpeted with tiny dicotyledons - the new lettuce crop.  But before I could even say "slimeballs", the very next morning, each and every one was gone. Many expletives later, I decided to replant and make sure I had killed as many slugs as possible.  I was pulling out all the big guns, Sluggo, the squishing stick, beer and even wine...

No, I wasn't about to drown my sorrows - just my slugs.  I put each drink into a similarly sized pot with the same diameters, set them in the soil, and labeled them A-E (just in case the slugs could read - got to keep it a fair test!)

Bet you can't guess which ones are the beer.

I left them out over night and came back the next morning and there was nothing, nada, not one slug!  In fairness, I had blanketed the garden in Sluggo, but last year I did that and still caught the slugs in the beer.  The beer was the same as last year too - well at least one of them was.  Two nights in  row and still no slugs at all. I was completely baffeled.

I went back to the crime scene with my camera to see if I could gather any more clues, wearing none other than my CSI Belfast Tee-shirt - bought for me by my friend Laura who came to stay during the summer and couldn't get over how much CSI, Criminal minds, Bones and other crime shows we watch - basically, if someone doesn't die in the first three minutes of a show, its not worth watching, and that includes House!

Upon closer examination, I discovered that the newly germinated seeds had not just been chewed down but that they had been uprooted - as in pulled out. You can see at least four shinny white stalks here.

 

And a closer look ...

I can only draw one of two conclusions here...

Number 1
The slugs have mutated and grown arms with which to pull up the plants before they eat them and to enable them to climb out of beer pots after having a good old drink.

OR

Number 2
It wasn't the slugs at all!  So, if it wasn't them, who else could carry out such a precision task?  The birds perhaps?

It seems that my fight against one garden mafia family, whilst successful, has only left room for another more sinister crime syndicate.

I fortified my veggie patch with bird netting in the hope that I can have some winter produce for myself...

And not to be too despondent about things, I have a lovely crop of scallions from saved seed coming up - slug and bird free.

And the bulb garden that I planted last autumn is now blossoming.

Anenomes

Daffodils

Also, the Almond tree is in full bloom.

So despite the little upsets, the garden always gives back nice surprises too.

Byddi Lee

Mulch ado about nothing

I had to laugh when I read through my usual blogs this morning.  So many posts seemed to tie in with what I was going to write about today.  I’ve been completely obsessing about the garden this week – I mean waking up in the middle of the night worrying, bursting into tears at the dinner table, type stressing!  So when the Obsessive Neurotic Gardener  posted today to say that he did not care today,  I reckoned that I was doing his share of obsessing for him.

So what’s it all about?

Last month, in my post The birds and the bees  I had a photo of a zucchini flower that I was very proud of.  Everyone had advised me not to plant too many zucchini as I would be buried in them come harvest time, so I planted two seeds which both grew into nice seedlings which I later transplanted into the ground.  They grew well, until one one was totally annihilated by slugs.

By this time, the other one had blossomed and was on its way to producing four fruit and more blossoms.  I had begun to look up recipes for zucchini dishes online!

Last Monday, disaster struck. This is all that was left of my lemon cucumbers - it is a sight that can make a grown woman weep!

 

Something had nibbled at the fruit of the zucchini plant too.

I can live with some teeth marks, but I had cause for concern when I saw that the rest of the plant was drooping.

Something had eaten all the way through the stem at the base of the plant.

Distraught, I threw the plant in the compost and went to seek advice from my friend, neighbor and ace garden mentor, Al.  My husband and I thought it was too big to be slugs, thinking that it might be squirrels, but Al said "Definitely slugs - come look at what they did to my potatoes!"

Expecting to see devastation in his garden, I climbed over the fence for a look.  All I coluld say was "What are you putting on your garden?"  Everything Al grows is huge compared to mine!  Yes, a couple of his potato plants look a bit slug chewed, but wow, the rest of his garden made me green with envy!

For example, here is Al's corn:

And here is mine:

Al's potatoes

My potatoes (and me being Irish too - oh the shame!)

Al's tomatoes

My tomatoes

Al's basil

My basil

Al's oregano

My oregano

Can anyone see a pattern emerging here?

Al says he uses Miracle Grow, but I'd been told in my gardening class that it wasn't organic.  Nevertheless, I wanted to run out and buy some - right away! But I wanted to be an organic gardener, and if I used the miracle grow would that rule out the "organicness" of my gardening?

Al also mentioned that he mulched his vegetables.  This is something I have not done, I've never done it before and I just never got around to doing it.  In my head I couldn't see how it would make much difference - I figured it was just to keep the weeds down.  Since I tend to weed a little every day, did I really need to do this?  Also, if the mulch spilled over the green living plants would it hurt them?  It seemed a hassle to me...

Bottom line, Al is a talented gardener with lots of experience and a real knack for growing stuff.  I'm not going to even try to compete with him, but I do think that my veggies could do better, and so does he.

Next day, after fretting all night about should I go with miracle grow or not, then deciding that I wanted to stay in the organic camp, I went to the store to get more fertilizer.  I usually go to a smaller independent store but it was closed, so I went to Orchard Supply Hardware instead and totally interrogated the staff about which liquid fertilizers were organic, nearly afraid to believe them when they said the fish emulsion - the cheapest one on the shelf.  Coincidentally, today happens to be "Fertilizer Friday" with Tootsie Time.

I'd never come across this before and thought it was kind of ironic after the mental torture I put myself through on  the fertilizer front this week!

In the end I decided to call the Master Gardeners hot-line to ask them two questions.

1. Why are Al's veggies bigger than mine?  
2. Why can't I use Miracle Grow?

I have to say that the Master Gardeners  is a great resource.  The nice woman said that she didn't think that the different fertilizers would cause such a difference in growth.  Then she asked me if I mulched?  When I told her I didn't, she said that was it.  I should try mulching with compost. 

She said Miracle Grow wasn't organic and the Master Gardeners didn't recommend it.  She couldn't quite tell me why.  After further research, I found out that Miracle Grow is made from chemicals designed to dissolve quickly in the soil.  By no means is it poisonous, but it should be used in moderation as it can cause algal blooms in water supplies.  If you want to garden organically "by the book" then don't use it.


So, I opened up the bottom of my compost heap to get some mulch.  All those slugs and snails that I sent to "jail" there blinked their eyes at the invasion of the harsh sunlight - these were the culprits who ate my plants.  No more Mrs Nice Gal, I squashed every one I saw and came back last night with a torch to finish the job.  I suppose you could say I broke the Peas Treaty.


With only enough home made compost for one plot, Al took me to get more organic compost.  Bless him - he's the best neighbor a gal could have!  He even lent me his wheel barrow, and I set to with the mulching.

The plot in the background has been mulched with the compost we made, the left with the shop bought stuff and the one on the right has yet to be done.  It makes the plants look really nice!

Growing in this plot, from the back forward are, tomatoes, pickling cucumber (from Judy in the gardening club), tiny eggplants, two potato plants, one left over turnip, carrots and spinach from last fall that is only now beginning to bolt!


Whilst my garden is sparse looking, I need to remind myself that it is the first year of gardening in the Californian climate, and as my husband pointed out, (as he tried to console me when I cried at dinner the other night about my veggies not growing! What a saddo!) we are eating from the garden on a continual basis, getting a dinner at least every second night.


As I dug up potatoes last night, I wondered if Katie Scarlette O Hara saw my garden would she be very convinced that she'd "never go hungry again" were she depending on it?  Still, we had ample for the two of us for last nights dinner.

 And we were treated to a dramatic sunset that turned the sky pink.  Que "Tara's Theme" - the sound track to "Gone with the Wind" - Da daaa da daaa.... da da daaaaa da da....da daaaaaa da da da....da da da daaaaaaaa!

 Byddi Lee

The Peas Treaty

The Peas Treaty

So it is by now well established that I hate slugs.  Slugs are stealth experts – they strike in the dead of night and the only ones I’ve actually seen were the ones that drowned in my beer.  They had smiles on their slimy little faces!  Then there are their comrades-in-arms – the tough(er) guys of the mollusk world, those warriors with armor plating (relatively speaking!) – Snails! 

I discovered where the snail’s headquarters are.  They’ve been hiding in two places – one is an old privet bush that I decided to take out.  Why oh why can’t the snails eat the privet leaves?  The blighters were camping out there but not actually eating the horrible bush!  Typical.  I can’t figure out why someone hasn’t decided to genetically engineer snails and slugs to prefer to eat weeds and invasive species – what a gardeners dream!

I don’t like to actually directly kill anything.  Spiders in the house - Allan deals with those.  The garden is my domain.  Beer is kind.  Sluggo is discrete and quiet – not that squishing a slug isn’t – its not as if they scream or anything.  Generally you don’t see the slugs.  But big brazen snails – they are a totally different kettle of gastropod!  I couldn’t bear to squish the ones I found in the privet –that whole cracking shell thing gives me the hee-bee-jee-bees - but what to do with them?

As I came across them I set them up on the bird table but as the afternoon wore on, can you believe it, they were escaping?   How sad a guard am I that 6 snails made a run, a snail run and almost made it?  And where were the birds and lizards that pose so nicely for photos when you need ‘em – probably off getting their facials and manicures!

We had a great run with the sugar snap peas… I planted them in October and we ate peas constantly right up until last week.  In the early days, we were eating mainly pod and tiny peas inside.  Later, we shelled the peas and they were still delicious.

 With the peas finished it was time to take out the old yellowing pea plants and put them in the compost – and that’s when I found the snail mother ship!  I picked up a snail that was nestled in between a leaf and a stem, and it pooped on my finger.  I dropped the snail and was left with a tiny perfectly formed snail turd (not that I’m an expert on snail turds) on the tip of my finger!

Talk about adding insult to injury!

Some of these snails were massive and there were tonnes of them!  Now I know who has been eating all my lettuce.  I felt betrayed by the peas for harboring the snails.  There I was, giving peas a chance and now this! 

And it was nigh on impossible to bring myself to kill them – they possess a quirky beauty all of their own.  And not a bit of wonder they are so beautiful what with all the good food, not to mention the drink, I’ve been supplying them!

 

My little book on how to kill slugs suggested throwing them in the compost bin.  Apparently, they tend to stay with the bin because it is full of goodies.  The pea plants were headed that way anyway, so it wouldn’t be that cruel.  Once there, the inmates headed straight for the walls, as if they knew they had to escape!

 Few days later, I caught a stunt snail trying to walk the tightrope to escape.  I guess no-one likes to have their freedom taken from them – but it’s either that or the death sentence – if I could find a reliable executioner!

And if you look closely you can see he has a passenger.  No ash cloud is going to stop this guy!

This past week I also decided to prune the big orange tree at the side of the house.  Those top branches had so many oranges that we were able to juice them, producing 5 liters (1.3 gallons).  We froze it so that we can enjoy our own fresh orange juice year round.  There are still plenty of oranges left on the tree for us to enjoy now. 

The peas and carrots are finished up but I’ve new batches growing – I’ve been staggering when I plant things so that I have as close to a year round supply as possible.

We’ve also been eating the following produce from our garden:

lettuce (many different types)

broccoli
Bok choi
Asian stir fry mix greens

spinach

kale

beetroot (one raw beet and six oranges makes a delicious juice for two – and it’s a lovely pink color too!)

Radish – though I gave them to Al because we don’t like them – I only grew them as an experiment to see if the 2001 seeds would germinate – they did!

Potatoes

Lemons

Limes – though strictly speaking these last two are our neighbor's trees.

I’m looking forward to the warm season vegetables.  Some of these I’ve never grown, nor even seen growing before.  It’s going to be a whole new adventure.

The front yard is progressing painfully slowly but progressing nonetheless – more on that another blogtime!

Byddi Lee