First I have to get this off my chest.... I hate slugs and snails! They are destroying my lovely little plants I had planted in my backyard.
My lettuce was so fresh and green and my cucumber and zuccini were so strong, but they have destroyed it all; the bastards!
There are really hundreds of them this year. Because the winter wasn't that cold and it has been pretty wet a lot of them survived. I read somewhere that they lay about 100 eggs 😩
Here's what's left of the lettuce. I've tried several things to stop them like eggshells, flower pots and beer. The last one seems to work the best, but still I don't catch them all.
I even go into the garden after a rainshower to pick them by hand, but it seems useless since they also come out at night.
I even caught some of them red handed!
I still have some more lettuce indoors, but I'm afraid to plant them outside now.
I did read about other solutions like cocoa shells and coffee grounds, but the first one is sold out everywhere (I wonder why that is) and I don't drink that much coffee to cover my whole garden with coffee grounds.
Despite these bastards I do have some positive news. The snails seem to leave my cherry tomatoes alone. I've planted them outside a while ago and they are still standing.
I also planted the sweet peppers outside. I hope they will be left alone by the snails too like the tomatoes. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
The fruit bushes and trees are doing quite well.
The apple tree looking healthy, but I only see a single apple in it. I hope it will grow well so we can eat it. Its only one apple to look after 😀
The blueberry bush has quite a lot of berries already. They are still very small and green, but they have enough time to grow and ripen during the summer.
As always the raspberry is doing great. I had cut it back completely doen to 20 centimeter stems and it's already over a meter tall again. And it's full of yet unripe raspberries. It seems well be getting loads of those delicious sweet raspberries again this year.
It helps that I've had a lot of insects in the garden again they really help with the pollination. Having a lot of flowering plants and bushes really helps attracting helpful little buddies like this bumblebee.
The next one looks like fruit, but it is actually an almond tree. It's really full of almonds this year. Unfortunately the almonds itself is quite small, so there won't be a lot left when you crack open the nuts, but it's a lovely tree, so that's also worth something.
So, this was my gardenupdate this time.
Stay tuned for more updates later in the season!
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You need diatomaceous earth.
Thanks for the tip. I've seen that too. But it's raining so much that I think that will wash away.
if you can find oyster shell, or crustacean shell of any kind that can be ground down fine, that is the important part. The crustacean shell is super sharp and damages ants, snails, slugs, and a host of other pests. If left on the larger side it shouldn't wash away as easily.
It is definitely a bad year for slugs... seems to be independent of location. Here the Northwest USA we're seeing more of them this year than we have in many years.
We don't like using poisons, and frankly the most effective thing we have is to simply go out to the garden after dusk with a bucket of water with dish soap and remove them by hand (yes, wear gloves!) and just drop them into the buckey... it's a bit of work, but after a couple of weeks we hardly ever see any more.
That's what I've been doing too. This evening after a rain shower I picked another one from a fresh green leaf. But there seems to be no end...
@tipu curate 10
Thanks @trliste
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Oh man, I have already given up on trying to avoid snails and slugs. I just gave up planting things that these little buggers attack. I have tried to grow pepper plants for so many years, but they always eat every single plant. And if they did somehow manage to miss one, they eat the peppers as well.
I am so jealous of your berries though! They look so lovely. The winters never get cold enough here to grow some variety of berries, but others (like the cape gooseberry) somehow thrive in our climate!
Thank you for sharing your frustrations and your successes. Keep well!
Thanks for your reaction. We didn't have so many slugs last year, so I was kind of surprised we do this year. I won't give up the fight yet 😂
Eventually, you will win the battle! After some time, they stopped eating my salad greens, I have no idea why.
I saw a similar situation in my mother's garden (which she does not want to spray with hemilalia, in order to maintain organic vegetables). Butterfly, on a perforated green leaf. Pest or not?
Considering that it is Arctia Villica from the family of moths, whose larvae leave on the back of the leaf of the host plant, it is obvious that the pest...
Its a beautiful insect. I do have a problem with killing animals myself too.