The weather has been cool and rainy, great for lettuce in the garden. I’ve enjoyed many lettuce harvests so far, but have one small problem—slugs. I began to notice small holes in the leaves, and found them crawling during a recent lettuce washing. YUCK!
In addition to lettuce, slugs also like beer, which kills them. So one evening this week, I made a little “fine dining” experience for them, hoping it would be their last meal. I put out a few small containers of beer and the next day found 14 drowned slugs, each about 1/2″ long. I did a second round with the beer, and caught only four, so I think they’re mostly gone.
Meanwhile, other garden happenings include a workday we had a few weeks ago to spruce things up. The community gardeners got together and mostly pulled weeds, planted flowers and did general clean-up. We got a lot done in a short amount of time!
We added a bee house on the east end of the garden. The bee house is for solitary bees, which are unlike honey bees. They do not live in colonies and do not make honey. But they are efficient pollinators of small gardens. They usually seek out cavities in untreated wood, but we’ve provided a small home for them, hoping they’ll stick around.
What else is happening in the garden? Snow peas, and the harvest is good! So delicious, I can eat them right off the vine. So far, I’ve had them in a vegetable stir fry and have also enjoyed them raw in a salad and as a dip with hummus. I will definitely grow these again next year!
And the strawberries will be ready soon. I put a little hard-wire over them, hoping to keep the deer away. (See The Deer Ate My Garden, last year’s post.)
Finally, I bought only 2 tomato plants this year, because I am fortunate to have 3 volunteer plants (photo of one below) which came up from last year. I’m told that most likely, they are cherry tomatoes, as they frequently re-seed themselves.
Happy Spring!
my little veggie garden 