A Weed Is A Plant That Has Mastered Every Survival Skill… Except For Learning How To Grow In Rows!
Having been busy in the yard, garden and greenhouse I have not been receiving my usual television input which mainly consisted of news. This is good however I like to keep up somewhat on what the Idiot US president is up to. I have managed to see enough to know that he is being told no much more often and I’m sure not to his pleasure. It’s good to think that a lot more people are finally standing up to that lying idiot. I was really pleased with the removal of the Trump name from the Kennedy Center. I can only imagine how this will be repeated once he’s no longer President. If we’re all so lucky.
The weather has been nicely cooler and wetter the last week an I’m hoping this trend will continue for a bit. The thunderstorm this last Thursday was loud waking me from my sleep. The lightening flashes were vivid but the thunder was way after the flash so not too close to our area. Which is very relieving as the rain we have received is far short of what we need and there are enough fires in BC and across Canada.
I’ve noticed a lot of brown moths this year. These moths lay eggs that hatch in to a blackish caterpillar that love to chew leaves. A liberal dose of a soap and water spray has worked very well so far. I have seen and destroyed a couple of snails in the yard but no damage found thus far. A friend closer to Lumby came out one morning to a sad showing of all her Nasturtium seedlings were chewed off about a quarter inch from the ground.
I would not have thought the Nasturtium with is fairly strong peppery flavour would be in their interest but they quite obviously loved them as they left one out of close to 20 little plants in a nice large planter. I said I would let her know what can be done to discourage them and now I will pass this information on. You can cut window screen into 6 inch strips then, bury them 3 inches into the ground around plants that they seem to favour, denying them access. Clay pots turned upside down with a flat pebble raising one side, they seem to love crawling up inside the pots to escape daytime heat and sun. This will allow you to dispatch them on your morning tour through your garden. Damp cardboard, newspaper or damp burlap will attract and trap them so you can destroy them on a daily basis.
One of the most ingenious of traps that also destroy them without any assistance is dishfuls of beer. They love it! Place this in a dish or shallow container so they can crawl in and drown. 2 tablespoons baker’s yeast with 1 teaspoon of sugar and 2 cups of water will also work. Another easy method is using leftover coffee in a spray bottle spray your plants well leaves both sides and stems with it, Slugs are not a big coffee fan this should resolve the problem within a few days. These methods are effective and a much better solution than commercial Slug and Snail bates that could be dangerous to pets and small children. If you have a personal favourite method of dealing with them please let me know your method so I can add it to an article to benefit some more victims of this pest.
Happy Gardening!
Samantha Nason
BS Ranch & Greenhouses
250 547 6567
sam1nason@gmail.com
