G is for Green and for Growing and for Garden

[the_siobhan]

I HAVE PLANTS! And they aren't dead yet!

Well, not all of them. I managed to kill off the four biggest of my tomato plants by giving them sunburn. Who the hell knew that plants could get sunburn? It certainly never frikkin' occurred to me, until all the leaves turned white and crispy and then fell off.

But I managed not to kill the other ones off yet. And after spending two days clearing weeds and flowers out of the bed, my back is killing me and I have a half-dozen tomatos and some basil and pepper plants comfortably ensconsed in the back yard. And every day I go out and glare protectively at them and cover the leaves in soap solution and today I'm going to buy some epsom salts to pour around the stalks in a valient attempt to keep the damn slugs off of them. Apparently slugs love basil. Another thing I didn't know.

While I was outside today I also picked up some more snails. Note that this was just what I spotted in passing, without doing any actual hunting around.



I now have about 30 of them. It has been yet another educational experience. I had NO IDEA anything that small could produce so much poo.

Comments

[quetzal.livejournal.com]

that's an awfully cute snail collection you have there. ^_^

another thing to try in the slug war is beer. i've heard that if you put a short-walled container of beer by the plants, slugs will be attracted to it, get drunk in it, and drown. or something like that.

ew. but effective.

i know, i know, what's more important, beer or basil, but hey - this way, you can have both, for only a small beery sacrifice. ;)

good luck with the plants! i've been known to kill cacti by underwatering them, so i admit, i'm a little jealous of your plant-growing abilities. ^^

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Slugs looove basil. That's why ours lives in a pot indoors that gets put outside to get some extra sun on nice days.

I had NO IDEA anything that small could produce so much poo.

As someone who has reared litters of just about every rodent kept domestically, I can well imagine.

Seconded on the beer traps for slugs - they really work! Thankfully, over here Tesco do a "value lager" which works out at about 25p per tin, which is probably best used as slug bait.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

I tried that. It didn't work.

My typical snail defense was to pick them up and "teach them to fly", IOW hurl them into the street. Any that survived and could make it back into the yard were free to try again if I caught them on another day.

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

The slugs aren't falling into your traps, they're leaving your garden in protest.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Not only do plants have to be hardened off so they get used to the cold, but also the sun AND wind!

Snails in the hand... *shudder* (but better than the slugs we have)

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

I am jealous of your tomatoes. The heirloom plant lady pretty much refused to sell me any starters when I told her they'd be inside and facing east. Instead she sent me home with some seed packets for a nice lettuce mix.

Lettuce is not nearly as fun as tomatoes. Sunburnt or not.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Traps are full every morning.

The little buggers really do only have 10,000 synapses.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I could give you some seeds. I have tons left.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I actually spotted my first slugs today and they are teeny!

Amazing that something so small can cause so much damage.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten any slugs yet, but lots of little wormy things and a buttload of earwigs!

I'm not complaining - I really hate earwigs. But it does still leave me with the issue of trying to protect my plants.

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's cool of you. But I suspect she might be right re: the amount of light we get. I'm probably better off sticking to herbs and lettuce, and getting my tomatoes from the Farmer's market.