Tuesday's Timely Tip

Howdy. I noticed at least three typos in the previous post.

Please forgive me for my bad grammaring.

You probably noticed that I haven't posted for a couple of weeks. That is because I have been inundated with work to finish my MA project, write-up and defense. I also started my new, full-time job.

So things have been a bit busy.

In any case, Tuesday's tip is in regards to slugs. I intend to post on Friday regarding the compost system and it is then that I will provide pictures of the garden so far.

Slugs and snails are a major nuisance. We have used eggshells in the past, and they have worked somewhat. To use eggshells to deter slugs, you just save a bunch of them and let them get dried out. Then you crush them and sprinkle a barrier around each plant or planting bed. It can be about 1/4 inch wide. Slugs will get sliced to ribbons on them, so that works pretty well.

The problem is that worms would come up from the ground at night and mess up the eggshell barriers. Also, the snails around here are massive, and they just plow through the barriers. So the eggshells were only semi-effective.

I admit that I used slug bait once. I feel bad, but it worked really well. You can just buy bags of it at your local nursery or home and garden store.

We also tried cups of beer, sunk in the ground. The idea is that the beer was very attractive to slugs and snails and they would find the stuff and then drown in the cups. This worked fine, but dirt filled the cups pretty fast.

So what works? Two things: chickens and timing the watering. Oh, make it three things: kids also.

Our chickens get let out pretty early in the day. They spend most or all of the day wandering the yard. They eat bugs like made and they love slugs and snails. There are far fewer of these slimy critters these days. Also, we only water in the morning. This lets the ground dry out during the day so that when evening falls, which is when the slugs and snails love to come out, the ground in the garden is dry. This seems to be deterring them also.

Finally, send kids out to roam the garden patches in the morning. Their mission: hunt down and slaughter all snails and slugs. Sometimes they toss the evil slimers to the chickens and the chickens do the wet work.

Totally organic. Totally effective. Totally freaking cool.

Finally, we dropped the price of the surplus tomato plants to $2 and they went like hotcakes. We sold all of them in about two weeks.

That's all for today. Back Friday for some compost and pictures.

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A little bit about slugs.

Slugs were once the bane of my gardening existence. They chewed on my corn plants, left gaping wounds in my squash leaves, and decimated an entire crop of peas. After ranting and sobbing, I asked around to find out what worked to keep out slugs. Here is what I learned and what I now use. And it works.

*Don't use salt. Yes, it is fun to watch the nasty beasties shrivel up, but salt is not actually good for the soil. So don't use it.

*Beer works. Yep. It is true. Get a shallow tub and either bury it or do something else to help the slugs get into the booze and leave the tubs out for a few days. When you go to check on them, you will find that slugs can be alcoholics too, but that they have drowned more than their worries in their beer.

*Egg shells. This is all around the best way to go. They are easy to gather and easy to use. Basically, just put your used egg shells back into the carton until the carton is empty of eggs and filled with cracked shells. Then set your carton outside for a week or so. Maybe put it in a shed or something. When the shells are dry, dump them in a trash bag and stomp them to bits. Now you basically have glass for slugs. Spread this stuff around the base of the big plants and at the edges of the beds of raised plots. Basically you are making a wall of shattered glass that will slash the slugs and snails to bits. A bit bloodthirsty? Yes. Are we willing to kill for our gardens? Absolutely.

Some other methods of slug control include using a special kind of slug-repellant soil and even hair clippings. But those are both too much work and the soil can be quite expensive. So just stick with egg shells.