LOL!
I Feel Gypped!
Organic Brick Method - i do believe you could make some serious $ on that, Martha!
there are whitish-grey slugs in Washington, and other colours, too.
I utilize the shovel: divot, position slug, chop, cover, smooth over.
OK here's my $0.02 as to why I feel gypped i.e. why I'll be lucky to get any produce after an entire spring and summer of serious gardening effort:
Even though the weather has actually been pretty decent here in WV, if a little on the cool side,
* After the traumatic death of my tomato seedlings due to an incompetent plantsitter, my replacement tomatoes have early blight (AGAIN) and some varmint has been chewing through the net bags I put on the fruit to stop some varmint from chewing on the fruit;
* My cukes and melons have wilt despite early detection and weeks of picking off cuke beetles;
* My beans were almost entirely consumed by deer, who walked THROUGH the netting and stakes as if they weren't there;
* My herbs weren't eaten, but the deer walked through the herb garden too (also netted and staked) just to make sure they weren't missing anything and squashed most of my plants with their little high-heeled feet;
* My sunflowers were demolished as soon as they stuck their little cotyledons out of the ground;
* And something has been running amok in my zinnias, which could be anything from a woodchuck to a husband with a hose.
O.M.G. And the neighbors wonder why I go outside and scream.
Gargh
pam
I do feel your pain on the critter front. Even without the weather issues, fungus and insects from every corner of the globe that have found their way here, I don't even bother to plant anything that I could eat because of the deer, ground hog, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, crows, chipmunks, etc etc. I would need a moat, pointy staked trench, firewall and a cannon blasting every ten minutes just to have half a chance at any success at all. And after all that they would probably tunnel in or airdrop their buddies into the garden to move the barbed wire. I grow some strawberries under a net and some get munched anyway, chives that no one other than me likes and I have one pot of grape tomatoes up on the deck. So far it has gone unscathed but only because they haven't found it yet. I surrendered to the other creations of nature long ago when it comes to growing food, they won. When it comes to my perennials however...this is war, I will never surrender! Chase those deer, drown those beetles, smush those slugs and spray that fungus. Keep on fighting... never surrender...NEVER!!!
ROTFLMAO
I LOVE the image of your critter deterrence devices. :) :) Unfortunately I think I need all those too. I get extremely protective of my veggies...my perennials I stick in the ground and if they survive, then they can stay. I long ago gave up on trying to grow any flower that wasn't already essentially a weed.
I don't know how pioneer families managed...if I had to feed my family on what I could produce, we'd starve REALLY fast. Although, as DH pointed out, if we desperately needed the food DS would be patrolling the gardens with some sort of firearm.
So sorry to both of you on your critter problems.
The pioneers probably had their kids sit out there with the firearms.
LOL - "critter deterrence devices" sounds like the making of a great video game, one that might actually reduce gardening angst...
pioneer children with firearms......yes, this I can see.
Plants vs. Zombies?
Martha
ngam - don't forget the electric fence in addition to the moat, etc. I felt that way for a long time - losing the battle with the woodchucks. They ate EVERYTHING!!! They even climbed my front steps (very high front steps) and ate my tomatoes in pots! Fortunately, my four legged woodchuck repellent arrived. I haven't seen one in my yard in 3 years. He actually got one on Sunday.
Now I have to patrol for slugs and japanese beetles. Too bad a dog can't help with that!
Oh ya electric fence, strobe lights, anything that helps. LOL I had some mini sunflowers in pots up on the deck a couple of years ago. Figured they would be relatively safe since any planted out in the garden are doomed to an early death from the local residents. Ya right. Looked out the kitchen window to see a squirrel sitting comfortably on the railing and dining leisurely on my pretty little sunflowers. Just made it easier for the little dear. Rabbits were not around here for years and years because of the predators that live in the woods. A couple years ago there was an explosion of bunnies. They were everywhere and eating everything. Slowly but surely they went away except for one large and evidently very smart monster bunny. He was now larger than a good sized cat and no doubt got that way at my expense. One morning last year I saw him going home to dine with mr Fox. :) I was not unhappy.
we have a lot of rabbits around here lately. The foxes are not doing their jobs! Andrew can't get loose to chase the rabbits like he wants to
oh its good to vent with you guys.... welcome ayah! this is a friendly group!!!!
my newest losses - the enemies ( rain, slugs, deer, blackspot, powdery mildew... )
the rain gave some of my roses the worse blackspot infestation I have seen it... I quit trying to spray!
the rain is giving the slug population a marvelous year... dahlias, are suffering...
slug are sooooo gross.. the worse in my opion... yack
deer - oh Bambies... they ate ALL my beans... I mean the entire bed... none will make it .... I am frustraded.... so not fair...
Kassia, you are not the only one, I could cry when I look at my flowers, not a single leaf or bloom is whole, on top of that deer ate all the Casablanca lilies, they were about 5 feet tall
For me, gardening in and of itself is therapy...but I would still really like to have at least SOME payoff for all that hard work! My yard must just be one big chinese buffet for the wildlife.
lol... that is a good one phuggins!!!! mine has even new enemies that I have not seen it....
Maria, I wanted to cry when I saw this...
Kassia, what was or is that?
That looks like deer munching to me...my beans look exactly the same. :( Kasia, if you cover the beans with netting so the deer can't get in (theoretically, anyway), they might rebloom and you could get a second crop of beans.
I'm switching over to 100% container gardening, since I have much more control over pests, and I can bump up the sunlight after several rainy/cloudy days by using the new CFL light bulbs in an adjustable lamp in the garage.
It obviously wouldn't work for people who want to grow veggies in volume, but it's perfect on a small scale.
I'm finished with checking the weather forcast every 2 hours and praying for sunshine; after doing that for three months, I'm taking matters into my own hands!
Kassia - you can definitely tell the difference between deer and woodchuck damage. The woodchucks eat from the bottom, deer from the top!
I put "bird netting" all around my veg garden and so far (fingers crossed) nothing big (deer, woodchucks, rabbits) has gotten through....
Kassia that is just a crime. I hope you can get second crop, for you this time. It is so discouraging this year for many reasons. Rained hard again yesterday and beat down everything again. Could have been worse is the only way to keep from screaming, sections of Ma had lots of damage from one storm with trees down, a big mess so I should not complain. It just is getting really old trying to prop up plants, collect slugs by the hundreds and now the crabgrass seems to want to take over the world. Like we needed one more thing to drive you nuts. Slug patrol produced fewer slimy slugs, but you would think they would be all gone after so many taken and smushed. It is all very discouraging. Pic is of slugs about to meet their maker from one bed this am. And I went out a little late to snag them too. More to get tomorrow, and the next day and...well there are some beautiful flowers and butterflies and lovely fragrance from some of the lilies so I guess we must try to focus on the things that are good in the garden, and of course there is always next season with new challenges and plants to see bloom for the first time.
The tomato blight is destroying everyone's plants. It is related to the organism which produced the Irish potato famine.
Here's my latest whine...after battling bugs, blight, woodchucks, birds, rabbits, and the ever-present deer, DH could really give a rat's patootie about it. He regards gardening as this quirky little hobby that maybe I'll eventually get over. If the deer eat the tomatoes, well, we can always go to the grocery store and get some. ?!?!?!?!?!?!
I do all of the work in the garden, which is how I like it--gardening is my therapy and besides DH can't tell a weed from an azalea bush, but that's another story for another time--but sometimes it gets frustrating when I put in a hard day's work and the only comment I get is, Could you please not leave your filthy shoes in the kitchen.
I must say that DH does have a lot of redeeming qualities but if he's not interested in something it just ain't on his radar screen.
Gargh
pam
Sounds like my hubby, but he wouldn't care about the muddy shoes either.
I like leaving just one muddy shoe around.
hop, hop, hop!
Tee hee...I can just see hubby (who is something of a neat freak) going into conniptions looking for the other muddy shoe...Where is it, I know she left it around here somewhere!!!
I love bugging out compulsive people.
Yeah, but DH can be the King of Crank, sometimes it's just easier to leave the muddy shoes outside if I don't feel like dealing with his OCD.
It's okay to leave them outside, as long as you tell him you're not sure if you locked the door.
LOL
Although where we live, we don't always lock the house door. However, I am frequently unsure as to whether I left the garage door up or not. :) (Boy, I'm glad DH doesn't subscribe to DG.)
"King of Crank" - LOL!
or whether I left the water running in the veg garden...
My sister calls him "Mr. Crankypants." Yeah, I do the running water one too. :)
I just got back from vacation today and found I left the air conditioner on - duh!!
Cool
Yes, the cats must have enjoyed it.
Oh, Victor, that's a riot!!
As for this season ... well ....
it's the first day of August and it's been sunshine all day long. Perhaps it's an omen for the rest of the month? Oh please, oh please!!
You can't use "the king of crank" that's my hubby's title.
Fat chance Candyce! It rained all day here today. I remember on the vernal equinox, the weather was beautiful, and after such a wet spring, I said that same thing you just did about it being a good omen. Well, I guess it's gotta break sometime! Was just visiting relatives in Long Island. Their whole house smelled moldy. Framed photos were wrinkly behind the glass. That's wet. Okay, I'm the one being cranky now! Sorry!! Let's hope for a beautiful August and September! Aw, heck! Let's hope for a beautiful rest of '09!
Flowerjen, we usually stick with my sister's version "Mr. Crankypants." So your hubby's title is safe. :)
Garden is a mite sad looking---I keep trying to weed, but I sink right in----flowers are soggy, too. The tomatoes have sooty spots on them----but it's therapy for me to get outside---I, too, have a Mr Cranky---can't see why I'd rather be pulling weeds than watching the Yankees!