As I've mentioned before, it was the wettest May on record last month with more than 9 inches of rain. We have inadvertently discovered the following tried and true garden formula.
Recipe for an Ultra-Slugerific-Slugtastic Slugfest:
Ingredients:
- 9 inches of rain
- Thick mulch
- A large serving of tasty young edible plants
Sprinkle garden with plants. Apply mulch generously. Gradually add rain and let sit. Viola!
~~~~~
Thanks to our perfect execution of this recipe, we have found ourselves fighting a war on slugs that seems almost as futile as the war on drugs. My usual slug-fighting weapon, Sluggo, an organic slug-killing product, has proved insufficient.
So this evening we've pulled back our beloved mulch (to which I am deeply philosophically attached and the absence of which pains me as I watch the sun dry and leach the soil), applied a boatload of Sluggo, and prepared to host a massive Slug Beerfest tonight. Christopher sacrificed his last three Pabst Blue Ribbons to create a buffet of beer saucers for the slugs. And now we wait.
Anyone who thinks growing vegetables, even organically, doesn't involve killing things should come visit our garden this month. Let the garden pest hunting season officially begin.
Hugs not Slugs!
3 comments:
I've never found beer to work in my garden. My slugs are teetotalers. I do much better by drinking it and not caring about my slugs. Last year we had rain like you are getting now. I too mulch. It was a really bad bad slug year. I hand picked slugs every night by flashlight. This year I found that early morning works as well and you can actually see. It is the only thing that has consistently worked for me. Which is really sad since I'm not a fan of slime.
I'm more of a hand picker too though I've been known to leave out saucers of beer or yeast and sugar to entice the little buggers. I so agree with your line: Anyone who thinks growing vegetables, even organically, doesn't involve killing things should come visit our garden this month. Look forward to moving beyond this phase into the everything's growing like gangbusters and will be ready to eat soon.
Thanks Daphne & G. Bean. . .the very night I wrote this post, we were out in the garden with headlamps hand picking and delivering slugs to beer-drenched deaths.
I've been killing quite a few wire worms lately, too. It's a bloody business sometimes, gardening.
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