A Garden Full of Slugs

In my last post when I said, “I’d rather have a garden full of slugs,” that’s pretty much what we’ve had in the backyard this year. In early May I remember thinking we had a peculiar absence of slugs. Well that didn’t last long, especially with all the rain and chilly weather we’ve had since May. I guess it’s partly my fault because I have done absolutely nothing back there this year.

One of the beds is overgrown with oregano, chives and weird cilantro that came back from self-sown seeds from last year. Two beds are empty, and one is full of two-year old strawberry plants. The plants look amazing, but if you look closely the strawberries themselves haven’t been doing well. They’re growing in weird deformed shapes, but that doesn’t really matter because the slugs are devouring any that even try to ripen.A girl could go broke trying to lure this family of slugs into beer, so I sort of let the strawberry patch do its own thing. Lily and I still go out and pick a few every morning, but it’s not nearly as much fun when you stick your hand into the lush green leaves and, instead of strawberry, you grab some fingers full of smushy slugness. And although Lily loves wormies, she DOES NOT love slugs. Truly a girl after my own heart.

Worst Kind of Garden Pest

You know, I garden because I love it. Because I enjoy the scents of rose, lavender and lemon thyme in the hot summer sun. I look forward to digging my fingers through the dirt, finding worms, growing and eating my own food. I do it for exercise, for beauty, for therapy, for enjoyment, for peace. But it sure can make me mad sometimes.
Early this spring, Lily and I planted nasturtium, sunflower, and black swan poppy seeds along part of the front fence line. In the last few weeks that part of the garden overflows with growth and blooms. Some of the poppies, which are a delicious rich midnight—meets—cabernet color are almost as tall as me. The yellow and orange sunflowers are a beautiful contrast and the red, orange and yellow nasturtiums carpet and climb among them.

Daily there are people who walk by our house and comment about how nice these flowers look, especially the unique poppies. Tall, gorgeous, dark purple blooms are definitely showstoppers. One woman even pulled over in her school bus to chat about them. She asked if she could take some of the poppy seeds with her. A week later she left some of her poppy seeds in a bag for me on our front porch. Thank you!Then there are the jackasses who like to rip the flowers out. Not just pick a flower or two here and there, but grab the sunflowers by the stalk and rip them out from the dirt, roots and all. The poppies, well they just rip the beautiful, fragile flowering heads off, sometimes as they are in mid-bloom. Then, as if that wasn’t painful enough, the idiots just toss the flowers aside on the sidewalk. If you want to piss me off, this is a great way to do it.
Greg and I have talked about planting veggies on the side yard, the part of the lawn that is outside the fence touching the street. This land belongs to the city, and if we did turn it into garden, I guess the city could tell us to put it back to sod, whenever they feel like it, but I think it would be worth that risk. However, after the sunflower and poppy thieves, I’m not sure I’m willing to put the time and energy into making something grow that people are just going to destroy. I'd rather have a garden full of slugs.

Hazards of Brain Dead Gardening

There can be some issues with planting seeds in your garden while nine months pregnant, and, then trying to maintain that garden with a newborn and ever-busy toddler. For example, I know we planted at least two kinds of onions, spring onions and scallions, but I can’t remember which ones we planted where, and the little signs have gone missing thanks to Lily’s curious hands. ( I know it doesn't look like onions are even growing in the above photo, but trust me, they are!)

And of course, they all look the same to me now. So which ones do I pick and when? I guess, as far as onions are concerned, I shouldn't worry, because for what I’m using them for right now: sliced up in salads, and topping Eggs Benedict, they’ll be fine no matter what kind of onions they are.In one patch of the garden, Lily and Greg planted onion starts with some carrot and lettuce seeds, and it’s been fun to see her desire to pick them and of course to eat them! The carrots, that is, she won’t eat the onions and she’ll taste a tiny piece of lettuce and then spit it back out. I often wonder what is going on in that small, but highly sensitive brain of hers when it comes to taste and smell. When I watch her it’s like I can see the gears clicking along with wonder. She’s just so amazing!

Digging For Potatoes

Every year we have potatoes grow up out of the compost. We have two compost pits, one that is full of usable compost, and the other that is still a work in progress. Last weekend Lily and I dug them up. I always forget what a pain digging for potatoes can be. Basically it’s me covered in dirt. Dirt in my shoes, dirt stuck in the rolled up cuffs of my jeans, and way underneath my fingernails—because no matter what kind of shovel or spade I start with, inevitably I end up using my bare hands to find just one more potato, certain I am that there will be at least one more. There’s always so much dirt to displace just to get to the potatoes.

I saw an idea of growing them up out of old burlap coffee sacks and then when you are ready to harvest, you just turn them out of the bag and all the potatoes are enclosed in that space. Much easier!

Lily was more interested in reburying the potatoes for a while which was pretty cute, because she makes a little hole with her hand, plugs the potato down in, covers it up with more dirt and says, “Pat, pat, pat” while gently patting the dirt over the potato.

Then she wanted to chuck them into the undecomposed compost bin so we found a different task for her to do. Greg got a bowl with some water and she washed the dirt off of the potatoes. It amazes me the tasks that take up her attention for long periods of time. Anything to do with water is captivating for her these days. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such clean potatoes.

That night we sliced the potatoes ½ inch thick, marinated them in olive oil, crushed garlic and rosemary and grilled them for 8-10 minutes per side on medium heat. Delicious!!

Peas Galore!

With all the rain, the cold temperatures, the new baby, one seriously busy toddler, and all the sleep I'm not getting, I've felt like the garden has been completely negelcted this spring. I get to it in pieces parts or not at all. But there are a few things growing from seeds Lily and I planted before Jasper was born. All of the sudden the snap peas are ready for pickin'; YIPPEE!

I haven't been as diligent about tying them up as they grow so they're not as tall as they could be, but I'm just happy they are growing at all. And I sure do love the taste of them, right off the vine; that cool sweet crunch is delicious!

Last year Lily loved them, she picked them and ate them. It took her a while to chew each one, but she worked on them till she could swallow them. This year she likes to pick them, chew them up, then spit them back out into my hands. Hmmm. Not exactly what I had in mind. She's definitely a lot more picky about her food this year. I'm hoping all the fresh summer veggies will kick start her taste buds back into gear.

Growing Salad Greens

You know, I’ve been gardening for years, but every year there is at least one thing that makes me feel like a complete novice. This year it’s lettuce. I had no idea how good homegrown lettuce could be or how easily it grew here.

I know people said it was easy to grow, but every time I tried, the slugs and bugs got to it before I could enjoy it. And to be honest I never tried that hard because I was never a big fan of lettuce, and why grow something you’re not going to eat anyway, right? Of course now I know why I’ve never been a big fan of lettuce, because, like many veggies, store-bought lettuce can be tasteless and BORING.

This year when Greg built the Earthboxes, or grow boxes, Lily and I planted some arugula, spinach and lettuce seeds, using seeds from Uprising Seeds in Bellingham, WA. I also planted a few French Crisp lettuce starts, also from Uprising Seeds.

Well, the seeds went crazy, and the starts loved their spot under the pea tepee. And we’ve been having fresh salads three to four times a week for over a month now. Delicious salads with simple, minimal dressings. Our favorite is a lemon vinaigrette: mix 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice with 1 minced garlic clove; whisk in 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil and a pinch of sugar. Yum! It goes perfectly with the arugula. Lily likes to pick the leaves and eat them too, especially the arugula which she calls “picy” for spicy. And she's a pro at watering them!

Rain, Rain...and Snails!

The rains have been assaulting us for the past few weeks. We even had a thunderstorm which is so odd for this neck of the woods. And for a few moments in the dark afternoon light, with the rain pouring and the noise of thunder, I dreamt I was sitting on the screened-in porch at the Maple cottage on Lake Erie watching a storm rise over the lake...

Back to reality. Now our yard looks like a jungle or rain forest, a forest of weeds, (and snails!) I swear, it's like the weeds quadrouple in growing strength when it rains. Lily helped me pull weeds and clean up the back yard a bit which was way more fun with her than by myself. She even got to wear her new gardening gloves that her Uncle Kevin gave her. I pulled the weeds and she swept them up with her mini broom and dust pan.