snails

A Fresh Monday Morning

December 17, 2012

It was nice to hear a little rain in the night. This morning was beautiful in my garden. I was mesmerized by the raindrops and other little signs of a damp yard.

Raindrops

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The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

May 21, 2011

I was out in my garden this morning and found this cute little critter traveling along my neighbors fence.

Acting a bit coy, the snail seemed to be posing for the camera!

Cute, as long as you stay in the neighbor’s yard!

My friend, Sue, lent me this book to read – The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating.

The story is true, written by a woman with a debilitating illness who lies in bed and watches a snail on a plant next to her bedside. Her observations are intriguing and I really enjoyed reading the book. Thanks, Sue!

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A change in perspective….

March 10, 2011

Now that I’m a chicken farmer, there has been a shift in my garden pests perspective.

Snails and slugs used to lurk in my garden behind pots and under leaves, waiting for me to find them and think, “Shoot, why can’t I get rid of these?”

Grubs – fat, white and wiggly – that I would dig up in the compost pile were gross. Ugh. And the thought of touching one of those, well, double Ugh!

Now that I’m tending to the Snowflakes, I’m on the hunt for tasty morsels to supplement their diet. I set up a board to be a hiding place for snails and slugs and I feel like I hit the jackpot when I find a big fat grub in the compost. The girls go wild when I toss these little extras into their coop. It warms a mother’s heart….

Bon Appetito!

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Giardinaggio felice!

March 7, 2010

In Italy it means Happy Gardening. That was me in the garden yesterday, except for the Italian part.

Yesterday the rain didn’t arrive until late afternoon, so I was able to get in a little yard work. The “busy-work” has been piling up out there and I get a bit antsy about it, so it felt good to get caught up on the garden.

I pulled out a bunch of stock that just never quite got its act together. The plants were lush and healthy for a few months, but when the buds starting coming out, so did the aphids, and I was never able to get that quite under control. Only one clump ever really bloomed, but the rest of the stock was sickly and dull, so I yanked them all out yesterday, except for the bloomers.

I also pulled out one clump of fennel. It was a bit past its prime, and it was crowding out the sweet peas, so fennel be gone!

My potato bins are thriving and it was time to pile more dirt in them. I used a whole bag of potting soil for that job but it’s done!

I have gotten behind in my deadheading so I spent some time with the sweet peas and freesias. It looks better now, but I have a feeling that I’ll be behind again by next weekend! I should make bouquets for the neighbors.

I’m finding snails around the garden, so I moved pots around to open up their hiding spots. It’s that time of year when they seem to multiply rapidly so I’m going to have to be vigilant.

Mi esposo helped me dig out and replant to golden jade plants near the front walkway, so that has completely cleared out the bed under my office window where I will plant my Campbell’s grafted gardenias.

I clipped some long lengths of a hanging sedum and repotted them to make a new hanging pot. Since I’ve been growing them for a few years, a lot of my succulents are reaching the point of growth where I’m able to take some pretty hefty clippings and it is not noticable. I’m getting a feel for which plants do well and what’s going to be an ongoing struggle, so I’m starting to clear out plants that I’m not so in love with anymore. Off to the Garden Club plant sale for them!

I weeded, raked and swept. A couple of hours in the yard makes all the difference! Especially for my mental health!

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The Good, the Bad and the Really Ugly

July 20, 2009

The Good: Gardeners get motivation from all the great things that happen outside. Gardening is mostly good things flowers, smells, satisfaction – well, you know, the list goes on and on.

The Bad: We have our frustrations with caterpillars mowing down our plants; cats and dogs trespassing where they don’t belong; big spideys, especially when you unexpectedly see it walking down your shoulder; heavy wind knocking plants over, earwigs, cockroaches, and other creepy looking bugs out there. Nuisances but part of the package.

The Really Ugly :
Once in a while, usually because I haven’t been paying attention and I’m not the tidiest gardener, something hideous happens in the yard that really puts me to shame. One time it was the grass clippings I gathered from my neighbors to use in my compost bin. I was trying to help them out and was happy to have more ingredients to make my compost ‘hot’. What happened instead was that I let the grass get wet and, after the grass moldered in the can for a couple weeks, it was bad. Stinky doesn’t even come close to describing how back it was. Suffice it to say, the neighbors never gave me grass clippings again. Who can blame them?!

Today’s icky problem was the spaghnum moss left over from the staghorn fern project last week. I left a bunch of it in a little garbage can full of water because I was going to do some other projects with it but didn’t get around to doing anything. (Gee, what a surprise!) This morning I got some whiffs of something bad when I was walking around in the back and by mid-morning it was getting pretty gross when I finally realized was it was. Nasty! I had to pour off the icky water around the yard and then rinse everything down to dilute the smell. Hope I didn’t kill anything in the process.

It was like an entity back there, lingering for awhile. Sorry neighbors – again!

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