Friday, April 24, 2015

Here is why the rocks didn't work...

SLUGS!!

Squirmy ugly slugs!



I found one munching on a ripe berry the other day after I had put up bird netting, still thinking it was birds eating the strawberries! This is how much it ate!


So we have edged everything (the bales, individual plants, house vents, etc) with organic Sluggo and diatomaceous earth in hope that it helps. I have gone out a couple of nights and looked for slugs and salted them (sorry vegan readers but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to save a strawberry!)... but of course they are probably hiding out in the straw bales in the day time so it might be a futile chase.

I am now thinking of moving the strawberries to another place in the garden in pots that I can put on tables or hang to keep the nasty slugs at bay.

Meanwhile in the front yard...


My first foxglove of the year is in bloom! These things reseed themselves like crazy every year and are so pretty in full bloom! You can see the wayward sweet peas still trying to make a showing and my future apricots!

Just a little slice of the garden to leave you with before I head off for a mini-vacation week to see my sister in Oregon and maybe possibly some fabric shopping at some of Portland area's amazing quilt shops!



Monday, April 13, 2015

Rock Strawberries... will it work?

My strawberries are starting to show fruit and I decided this year I wanted to harvest more strawberries than the birds! So I looked online and found a lot of references to rocks painted to look like strawberries then placed around the strawberry patch to fool the birds. I decided to give this a try...

So I found a bunch of rocks...


Brought them last weekend when I went to visit my arty friend Leslie and we painted rocks...



then I put them into my garden...



and now I wait. Will the new little berries stay uneaten?

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Hail!

Wow, we had a flash storm pass through yesterday bringing some much needed rain and then towards the afternoon, hail! We get hail maybe a couple times a year at best, mostly in the winter. But this was a cold storm with thunder and lightening in the afternoon, and the hail soon followed.

I probably should have covered my planting area but I was too busy watching the hail. Poor plants!


The front of the house managed fine, but the side garden got pretty pounded...