Slugs
Slimy snot bodies
Threatening pea survival
Drown you in salt, Die! (insert evil cackle here)
Yeah, I know, perhaps a little unduly violent, but the slugs have decimated our pea plants and we're feeling a little upset about it. So we've waged a daily war on those darn slugs and every morning we are out there before the morning dew dries and the slugs move undercover. They are ripe for the picking in early morning - all plump and glistening in the early sunshine. All fat and happy on pea leaves and turnip greens. As a math biologists I shouldn't be so grossed out by the things, but really people, there is a reason I studied theoretical ecology. Computer simulations are my friends. Unlike those pesky slugs. Despite the all out declaration of war, the outlook for a pea harvest is looking a bit grim.
But the rest of the garden is just thriving. Take a look:
Our potatoes have gone from this (back in March)
to this
and we have all kinds of greens and roots (turnips, beets, carrots, rapini, collards, baby bok choy, kale, red lettuce, microgreens) that the slugs haven't devoured yet.
And although we never actually planted it ourselves, this beautiful chive plant comes back year after year.
Joe made a gorgeous red potato and chive blossom salad this week with kalamata dressing. Check it out!
We have strawberries (I just harvested the first two!!) and blueberries and are breaking ground for a sweet dark cherry tree.
Joe and I are a bit obsessed about our garden. We were pretty excited when we first found our house and discovered there was already one raised bed in the back. We have since added two more raised beds as well as just digging up random patches of our yard for lettuces, jiu cai (Chinese garlic chives)
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| (from Wikipedia) |
and wildflowers. Right after T was born, Joe gave me a copy of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle on CD, realizing that I spent hours of my day, immobilized and nursing. Although in the end, we saved it for car trips up to Cleveland to visit family. It took us months to complete the book this way, but it made the trips really special and we would find ourselves staying up late at night in bed talking about the book and dreaming of our future garden.
Luckily, we aren't the only enthusiastic gardeners in this house. Taran is also big on "helping".
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| "What?! You weren't actually using these tools, were you?" |
