My onions were attacked by the giant slugs. You think I am kidding? Take a look at this one!
It was as long as my hand! They didn't even blink at my crushed eggshells - they just climbed right over via some grass/weeds that I didn't get a chance to take care of while we had visitors. (sob!) My strawberries did semi alright, but there just wasn't enough out of them to do much of anything.
The one plant that has exceeded my expectations was this one:
DH was supposed to build me another raised bed and just did not get around to it. I had dumped out some of my old dirt pots into one of the extra recycling bins while I waiting for him to get around to it. I didn't even add composting or anything to it. While out shopping, I had picked up a zucchini plant that I had wanted to put into that raised bed, and the poor thing kept hanging out on the deck in the original container waiting... and waiting... Finally it looked on the brink of death, and in desperation I put him in the dirt thinking maybe I could try replanting it. (yeah, right) The plant sat there in there... waiting... (I'm not kidding about my DH and procrastination lol) and when my inlaws were here, it suddenly blossomed! With the heat it really took off, and a week and a half later I had these:
I was starting to panic thinking what I had was a watermelon plant, and not the zucchini I thought I had bought, but no, it really is a Baby Bush Zucchini - they have these funky stripes on them and are a little rounded. Full grown they are 4-6" long, and since this one is at the 6" mark, I'll be picking it later tonight! Whoo hoo! My first zucchini since we have been here!
And I had a lovely visitor this week too. Isn't he beautiful?
I'm just glad we don't have to rely on our garden to survive! I have a long way to go before I would ever feel that confident. How is your garden going?
4 comments:
Hi Storm, that's a great looking zucchini! They are really hard to kill, lol. I had some that were given to me (I didn't want them, but after watching them dying on the porch for three weeks I caved and planted them in the ground and we've actually been getting a bunch of fruits from them)
As far as your slugs go- I had some that were absolutely ravaging my tiger lillies. Put out a low saucer of beer and they will drink it, get drunk and fall in/drown. OR you can put some all bran cereal around the base of the plants and a saucer of water. They eat the bran, drink the water and, ahem, inflate. ;) I saved all my flowers this way.
Good luck!
Wow, those slugs are really gross. So sorry. :(
Ditto on the slug - gross. Looks like a snake! I thought I had them licked with my ground up eggshells, but it didn't last. Now lots of leaves are full of holes. Try reading the info from the Univ of Minn on slugs. copper will kill slugs. Pennies maybe? I just read a post on covering floors with pennies (which looks pretty cool). Maybe I can mulch the garden with them; I seem to have a ton of them. I really can't bring myself to go out hunting for slugs every morning.
The squirrels and chipmunks are getting all my tomatoes at first blush, which is driving me up the wall. The collards and kale have whitefly like you wouldn't believe, and some kind of beetle. My zucchinis are actually doing pretty well, but a long hot, dry spell seems to have slowed them down. Still getting a nice harvest, though. Yours really does look like a watermelon! Waiting for my sweet peppers to turn yellow, with my fingers crossed. They're doing ok. I was feeling really discouraged today, especially about the tomatoes, having spent hours building wire mesh fortresses around them, to no avail. But, heard on the radio that a 50% harvest is normal for even the best gardeners. Soldier on.
What an incredible shot of a dragonfly! I am very partial to dragonflies and have only seen one on the island here this year so far!
Thank you for sharing!
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