Kid-size veges

Miss Tizz and the X-man were busy setting up their own vege garden this afternoon (with a couple of ring-ins from next door). If the snails don't do too much damage, we should have plenty of kid-size cherry tomatoes and mini iceberg lettuces ('ice cubes').

Battle positions!

I was getting quite disheartened by the disappearance of seedlings last week - something was eating them - but I'm not giving up! The garden is now getting a regular dose of coffee (which apparently does very nasty things to snails), and I'm going to attempt to win through sheer force of numbers - I'm scattering lots of the out-of-date seeds in the hope that enough will germinate and survive to result in a harvest. I really don't want to resort to pesticides, but I'm also not willing to work for snail, grub & insect food alone.

We're currently bucketing the rinse water from the washing machine out to the garden, and supplementing with town water to coax the seedlings through the warmer days. It's the first time we've watered anything in the garden for several years!

Fun in the garden

Went snail stomping last night. There's something immensely satisfying about the manual destruction of those who would destroy. Brings out all my sadistic tendencies!

I like to think of it as feeding the lovely leopard slugs ;)

Slugs, Coke bottles and a tetanus shot

An eventful day in the garden! I planted the rest of the seedlings, but in the process managed to step on a rusty nail in a piece of timber hidden under overgrown grass. I was wearing runners, and it went straight through and into my foot, and I have no idea when my last tetanus vaccination was, so it was off to the doctor for me. Ouch!

So your community service announcement for the day is: When gardening, wear serious boots with solid soles, watch where you're stepping, and keep your tetanus shots up-to-date.

i must be getting serious about this gardening business though, because when I did it, I called my four year old to tell the husband what had happened, and I kept planting. Well - it was important that all the seedlings went in today!

When we arrived home from the doctor (and dinner - it was too late to cook by then), I went outside - watching carefully where I walked - to cover up the plants for the night. And I found this not-so-little fellow:

He (or she - they're hermaphrodites) is a leopard slug, and while they will eat plants, they much prefer snails, other slugs, pet food and cat faeces (!). There are quite a few of them in the garden, and perhaps that's why there aren't so many snails. Apparently they are also useful at cleaning your bathroom - they will eat the mould from your tiles - but you need to watch your step at night: they're prone to exploring the rest of the house, and are very squishy when stepped on in the dark. If you're into garden porn, google leopard slugs to see their extraordinary mating ritual.

We've found a use for the Coke Zero bottles the husband seems to empty at an alarmingly rapid rate. They make great little seedling protectors from snails, and are fabulous miniature greenhouses:

We didn't have quite enough to cover all the plants - I'm hoping the leopard slugs will stand guard duty on the rest.

Planting (part 1)

We bought some seeds and seedlings yesterday, but didn't get a chance to plant them (i.e. in too much hip pain after removing suckered saplings from a section of the driveway so we don't scratch the car every time we drive in). Then at about 1.30am I realised I was on preschool duty this morning, so didn't get to it until this evening. It's too dark to take photos now, but I'm really hoping something survives the snails so I can take some tomorrow!

I'm working on the theory of random planting confusing the wee beasties, and have interspersed various brassica species (cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts) with various salad greens, and there are still beetroot seedlings, various herbs and seeds to go in, plus the marigolds and petunias the children chose. I ran out of light, so the rest will have to wait. The husband was conscripted to cut the tops off large soft drink bottles, which will hopefully provide some protection from the snails. Unfortunately there weren't enough bottles to cover everything, so we'll see how effective they were in the morning light.