The Little Things

It's often overlooked in a lot of these blog posts how much little bits of work are put into the garden everyday. For us, Tuesdays and Saturdays are always jam packed with chores in and around the garden. There is ( of course ) weeding, watering, transplanting and contemplative squirrels to deal with  but there is also the little things.

Meg planting her Felicia Rose

(more to come on that rose later)

Refilling the slug traps.

(one for me... one for my sluggies)

I''m really starting to appreciate the maintenance for the first time. Getting out there, getting dirty, and tossing slugs & beer off this slimy mortal coil while Meghan waters with sniper like precision.  

Weeding the soon to be epic herb and flower garden.

Chewing on a bit of early harvest celery

The best of the little things happens tomorrow morning when we harvest the bulk of the radishes before work and get to share them with friends and family. 

And that squirrel thing that you have been wondering about since you read the first paragraph...

Contemplative Squirrel

Creatures of the night are eating my cabbage !

Slugs, snails and other slimy creatures are attempting an invasion and we are holding our ground... slaying them by the dozens and using only natural techniques victory will soon be ours.

Most people see them like this

Gardeners see them like this

Fortunately, there is a good selection of natural techniques to keep this hungry critters at bay. 

Our first step is identifying what plants they have a particular taste for. You can't battle an enemy if you don't know where they are.

The next thing we do is set up a barrier. This can be done with crushed egg shells around the damaged plants, or discarded coffee grounds. You will want to make sure the barrier is between 2 and 3 inches thick. 

We tend to avoid the copper method mainly because it can be expensive but you can try this at home by purchasing copper tape at your local hardware store or garden supply. This through either magic or science electrocutes the little monsters and kills them. 

The favorite method at The Littlest Farm is beer. There are two ways to use beer, one more effective than the other. We save our empty cat food and tuna fish cans bury them in the soil, fill them with cheap beer ( slugs and snails have notoriously poor taste in beer ) and wait for those pesky mollusks to drink themselves to death. 

The second beer method is to just drink the beer, ignore the problem and have a good time. This method is significantly less effective.

What methods do you use?