Slug Fest 2013

Warm, rainy weather has arrived. This is the usual weather for this time of year in this part of the country. And as usual, the slugs are pigging out in my garden.

Baby slugs nursing on my Napa cabbage.

Slugs are terrestrial mollusks that wreak havoc on tender seedlings and leafy greens, leaving a film of slime in their wake. For those of us who don't use chemicals in our gardens getting rid of slugs presents a challenge. A beer-bait trap works to a certain extent as the slugs are drawn to the fermentation, then fall in and drown. The yucky part is dumping the gross slimy mess once the container is full. A beer trap will kill slugs, but it may draw additional slugs to your garden that otherwise might be headed for your neighbor's yard.

Some gardeners swear that spraying a blender-made mix of slugs and  cayenne pepper on and around the garden will act as a slug deterrent. Personally I can't stomach the thought of collecting live slugs and putting them into a blender.

My favorite method is to ruthlessly slice slugs in half using my garden snips for the little buggers and my pruners for the big thugs. The most successful strategy for this tactic is to wait until dark, put on a head lantern and launch into the garden with pruners as your own personal weapon of mass destruction. I may not kill them all but it's great therapy.

Overall the best way to keep slug damage to a minimum is to use a combination of tactics  known as Integrated Pest Management or IPM. IPM for slug control includes the following recommendations.  Remove objects that serve as hiding and breeding places such as garden debris, weeds, wooden planks, stones, etc. Spread rough edged substances such as diatomaceous earth, crushed oyster or clam shells, etc. around seedlings. Place 4" tall copper barriers around tender plants. Iron phosphate baits (such as Sluggo) work as a deterrent and are safe around children and animals, but need to be reapplied after a rain. And for instant gratification get out there and slice up the freeloaders with your pruners.

Yacon--an unusual plant for the edible garden 

I get excited about growing new varieties of plants, and super psyched about growing a plant I know nothing about--especially one that can be eaten. A couple of weeks ago I was wandering around a local farmers market and came across 4" starters of a plant I'd never heard of--Smallanthis sonchifolius commonly known as Yacon and also called the Peruvian ground apple. This was a plant I couldn't resist . . .

Yacon or Peruvian ground apple in my spring garden.

According to what I've learned from the grower at the farmers market and from online research, this plant is traditionally grown in the Northern and Central Andes. Yacon produces edible tubers that supposedly taste like a cross between an apple and a sweet potato, with a texture similar to jicama. Sunflowers and Jerusalem artichokes are close relatives. Harvesting the tubers should happen in fall after a frost, and after the upper branches and leaves die back. Also, the rhizomes can be dug up and stored for planting the next season.

Tubers and rhizomes

Yacon's edible tubers contain a natural sweetener called fructooligosaccharides. The sweet properties of the tubers pass unmetabolized through the body, and have a pre-biotic effect. Yacon can be eaten fresh, cooked and made into a sweet syrup. 

Stay tuned for a post season evaluation of this one.

I'd Rather Be Outside. . .

Technical difficulties known as a computer virus kept me indoors most of today. If I had to be inside this actually wasn't too bad a day for it. Bursts of cold rain intermittently blew in from somewhere. But as the day wore on, and virus scan after fruitless virus scan, anti-virus download after worthless anti-virus download, I just knew it would be much nicer if I was outside completely drenched, with wet hair, muddy feet and cold hands. The rain always looks worse when you're inside looking out. But when I'm struggling to fix a computer problem, the rain looks mighty good to me from inside too.

This is what I felt like all day. 

Unfortunately it's not getting fixed for a while because Jason, my computer consultant guru, is off to an annual bacchanal celebration tomorrow for the Memorial Day Weekend. He tried his best to advise me remotely while he was at work through Google chat. Although I think we identified the evil files (password protected so they can't be deleted easily), the machine will remain quarantined until after he returns. In the interim I will have to tough it out with my netbook. I'll try for a more upbeat post tomorrow.

Nasty Plants    

A.A. Milne said, "Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." A.A. knew how to write children's books, but I don't think he knew much about weeds. There are some weeds I do not want to get to know. I just want to KILL them. Today I spent about 2 hours at the Brooklyn Community Garden digging out invasive plants. These nasty weeds tend to have roots that grow deep into the earth making it nearly impossible to remove the entire plant. Which of course means that in a few weeks they'll be baa-aack! 

Plant Enemy #1 in my book is the Blackberry. If you see it--dig it out!

Next is the easily recognizable prickly Thistle. Whether it's the Milk Thistle, Scotch Thistle or the Whistle Thistle, I abhor this plant. If it flowers and goes to seed, these awful plants will be all over tarnation.

Then we have Bind Weed. At least it doesn't have thorns on it, but it will grow around everything it encounters in its voracious path. It will literally strangle other plants. This obnoxious weed gets these 'cute' little flowers on it but don't let it fool you into thinking you should spare it. PULL IT OUT!

Old Man's Beard or Clematis vitalba is a perennial woody vine that grows rapidly, produces tons of seeds, and spreads vegetatively. It climbs trees and shrubs, shades them completely from sunlight and eventually kills them. It can also spread horizontally like a ground cover, creating dense mats of vegetation. It's easiest to dig out when young. If it's already established cut it down and don't let it flower.

I haven't seen English Ivy growing in the community garden, and I hope I don't. This photo is of a poor tree in my neighborhood that is being strangled by this vine. Ivy's roots go deep and it's almost impossible to pull it all out. But if you see it growing on a tree like this, at least cut the vines at the base of the tree.

If you see these nasty plants dig them out, cut them down, and put them in the yard debris. 

Basil -- so pungent, so fragile. The least bit of sustained cool temperatures and leaves yellow then drop. My little starters are still in the greenhouse. I'm an over-protective mother when it comes to basil.

I have 3 types of Basil starters:  Genovese, Thai and Mammoth. Each one has a unique growth habit and flavor.

Genovese Basil is commonly used in pesto, tomato sauces, and on pizza. The plant has a relatively sturdy habit, growing to about 12" tall by 8" wide (over a warm, dry summer).

Thai Basil loves the hot, humid dog days of summer. We don't get a whole lot of that kind of weather here in the Pacific Northwest. If you think about where this plant comes from, it makes sense that in hot muggy Thailand the plant prospers. In this climate we have to work harder to make it happy, but the flavor is worth the trouble. Thai Basil has a delicate habit, with thin branches and small leaves, and grows 8 to 10" tall by 6 to 8" wide. Yummy in stir fries, wraps and soup.

Mammoth Basil is also known as Lettuce Leaf Basil. The plant has lovely, large leaves with a mild flavor that I find perfect in fresh salads, as a wrap, and for garnishes. The plant grows 6 to 10" tall and about as wide.

I'm hoping to be able to harden off the starters this next week when the forecast is for warmer weather. If that happens they'll get planted around Memorial Day.

Hardening off is another subject to mumble on about at this time of year. It isn't cool temperatures that are the biggest problem, but the drying effects of direct sunlight on a plant without a deep root system. Almost any starter from a protected environment like a greenhouse or windowsill needs a gradual introduction to direct rays of the sun. Begin by setting your starters outside for morning sun exposure and afternoon shade. After a couple days increase the direct sun exposure a little longer each day. After 3 to 4 days they should be hardened off. A cloudy day is ideal for planting starters in the garden. Keep the starts well-watered at least for the first week or 2 until their root systems expand to support providing enough moisture to the leaf canopy.

Featured Photos:

Variegated Ginko

Dwarf Fern

Voodoo Lily (Amorphophallus don't remember variety)
 and Autumn Fern (Dropteris erythrosora)

Judy's Fern 

Grafted Tomatoes

My friend Regina works at a wholesale nursery. Occasionally they have annual plants that get too mature for selling within the retail market. This excess inventory gets tossed onto a compost pile. When the plants happen to be edibles Regina calls me to come pick them up for the Brooklyn Community Garden. Today she called to come pick up grafted tomatoes. With Don's help and vehicle, we drove down to the nursery and stuffed his truck full of almost 100 huge grafted tomato plants.

We rode back with tomato plants hanging around in our ears. 

And what is a grafted tomato you might ask? As I understand it, the grower uses a 'secret' super rootstock onto which a tomato variety is grafted. The benefits of this process are claimed to give the tomatoes better disease resistance, improved wild weather tolerance, stronger plants, and bigger, better and longer harvests. Mighty Mato is the variety we received.

Last year I grew a grafted Green Zebra tomato and also grew a regular Green Zebra. Disappointingly, my  grafted plant didn't produce as well as the regular one. Regina had the same experience with this variety, however a number of other gardeners have had spectacular success with this product. Maybe the Green Zebra variety was the problem not the grafting. This season I'm growing 2 different varieties, and will keep track of how they do.

The community garden may hold a tomato tasting festival come September to compare notes. Stay tuned.

Jade picking out her grafted tomato plant.

So thanks Regina and F&B Farms for the great donation to our community garden.

Garden Mumbling

A cool rainy day, just what the slugs like. I'm hoping that the early warm weather we had over the past few weeks gave the veggies a head start in growing out of their easy reach. Took the basil and melon starters out of the greenhouse for an afternoon of direct light, but back in they went for the night.

Weeds are doing extremely well. Spent some time on my knees with the hori hori, my favorite tool.

Harvest ready in the garden:  Broccoli, lettuce, spinach, green onions, asparagus, arugula, chard, radishes.

Featured Plants

Mimulus primuloides--Monkey Flower

Spirea j. "Magic Carpet"

Iris pallida --Variegated Iris

Cornus kousa chinensis -- Chinese Dogwood

Green Cherries, and lots of them

Sambucus nigra 'Black Beauty' -- Elderberry

Today's Featured Plants

Bean Teepee 

Heron overlooking the herb garden.

'Don Juan' Climbing Roses over the entry arbor.

Climbing Hydrangea

Artichoke almost ready for eating.

Lulu and the Clematis

Philadelphus lewisii --Mock Orange

Blueberries not yet blue

May 15, 2012
Gardens, gardening, growing things, hands in the dirt, dirt on my shoes, dirt on the floor. As long as it's not dog poop on the floor, I'm ok with that. . .

Back to gardens. I look out my window and see the plants I've put into the ground. Some were planted years ago, some in the past few days. I can see the greenhouse that sits as a fortress against inclement weather. It still holds the basil and melon starters that were reassigned back inside when the temps dropped yesterday. The past few weeks of warm weather was a false start to summer and our early sunburns will probably peel and fade away.  As of today we are having a typical rainy cool spring day. I hope it doesn't get much cooler or I might have to dig up a few of the more tender veggies and put them in the fortress for protection.

I owe this blog to Jason and Sarah who encouraged me on Mothers' Day (over a deliciously spicy dinner cooked by Chef Silpher) to share the things I know about gardening. I hesitate to call it 'knowledge', because most of what I do comes without thinking about it. There's this instinct or flow of actions when I'm working in the garden, planting, pruning, observing. Sometimes I can explain what or why or how I do what I do, sometimes I act from a feeling or instinct of what needs to be done --totally sidelining my brain--and not 100% correct I might add. Growing stuff is definitely an ongoing lesson.

Additionally, maybe this blog can substitute for my manually kept journal. I like to keep the details and history of what I plant, and have done so for years. Each seasonal planting gets a map drawn of what is planted where, and subsequently an evaluation after harvesting. What worked, what didn't. What to definitely plant next year. What to never, ever plant again. Not sure if a blog will totally substitute for the pencil-in-hand and notebook, but maybe.

So with all that said, I'm heading out between rain showers to take some photos of what's blooming in my yard today.