Getting Rid of Slugs in the Vegetable Garden

My new vegetables are being decimated by slugs! I went out this evening and hand picked off a few small ones. I found some potential natural solutions for slug control at eartheasy.com

Eartheasy mentions two solutions which are very doable for me: seawood and coffee. We are near the ocean so I plan to take a trip to the beach to gather some seaweed. It will be really stinky, but the salt in the seawood is supposedly enough to repel them. Another natural solution is coffee. I just went off coffee due to stomach problems, so this is a great way to use up my remaining coffee stash.

I read here at gardenweb that spraying ammonia onto the area helps, and iron phosphate slug bait, AKA Sluggo which is non-toxic.

The ones we have are the long giant brown spotted ones. They are really creepy looking, and are best seen at night with a flashlight along our foundation. I'll try to get a picture of them - ours are so huge they look like alien slugs. Shivers!

Grow Your Own Mushrooms

9-10" Shiitake Mushroom Log

Product Description from Amazon:
"All-natural hardwood logs injected with shiitake spawn produce mushrooms every two months for years. Grow indoors with plants or outside in shade. To produce mushrooms, or "fruit" the log, soak it in non-chlorinated ice water for 24 hours. Harvest in 6-10 days. Logs require regular soaking in nonchlorinated room-temperature water every two weeks. Log-grown Shiitakes are high in protein, low in fat and have a meaty texture. They have a deep, rich flavor and absorb the flavors of spices, herbs and foods they're cooked with. Chefs prefer shiitakes grown on logs for the superior flavor, texture, and color. "

See Autumn Rose's Shiitake mushroom harvest; my inspiration for this post.



More mushroom kits:


Pietra Fungaia

Mushroom Kits - Button Mushroom Kit - 6 lbs

The Espresso Oyster Mushroom Patch. Recycle and grow mushrooms at the same time. Product Description: "Practice bioremediation at home! Recycle old newspapers, coffee and espresso grounds by inoculating them with Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus). One of our favorite methods is the simplest: just mix the sawdust spawn directly into coffee grounds, espresso or perked. Our Pearl Oyster spawn fruits in a wide temperature range, making it suitable for inoculation across the country. A fascinating project for people of all ages. Kit comes complete with 1 gallon of Pearl Oyster Sawdust Spawn and detailed instructions."

The Beautiful World of Ferns

"The green and graceful fern.
How beautiful it is.
There's not a leaf in all the land.
So wonderful, I wis. "

Have ye e'er watched it budding,
With each stem and leaf wrapped small.
Coiled up within each other
Like a round and hairy ball ? "

Have ye watched that ball unfolding
Each closely nestling curl
Its fair and feathery leaflets
Their spreading forms unfurl? "

"Oh, then most gracefully they wave
In the forest, like a sea,
And dear as they are beautiful
Are these fern leaves to me." — Twamley


Our Ferns in Their Haunts: A Guide to All the Native Species, by Willard Nelson Clute, 1901

A Century of Ferns: Being Figures with Brief Descriptions, by Sir William Jackson Hooker, 1854.

The fern paradise: a plea for the culture of ferns by Francis George Heath, 1878

" The Spring is here—the delicate-footed May, With its slight fingers full of leaves and flowers ; And with it comes a thirst to be away, "Wasting in woodpaths its voluptuous hours. " ~Willis

How to Know the Ferns: A Guide to the Names, Haunts, and Habits of Our Common Ferns, by Frances T. Parsons, 1899.

A bit about the folklore surrounding the Bracken Fern and ferns in general from Folklore of Plants, By Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer, 1889:

"Among Celtic and Germanic nations the Fern was
formerly considered a sacred and auspicious plant. Its luck-bringing
power was not confined to one species..."

"...those who possessed the secret of wearing this seed
about them would become invisible. Thus, we find that, in
Shakspeare's ' Henry IV.,' Gadshill says : ' We steal as in a
castle, cock-sure : we have the receipt of Fern-seed, we walk invisible.' "

From A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden by Walter Crane, 1899:

Here's VENUS'-COMBE for MAIDENHAIR

For children: Nature Study Made Easy by Edward Byrne Shallow, Winifred T. Cullen,Ferns, ages 9-11, published in 1909.

All are in public domain, readable online or downloadable as an ebook.