What Works to Rid The Garden of Snails

 WHAT WORKS TO RID THE GARDEN OF SNAILS?

It is not by chance that one snail turns into hundred, they have an average cycle of 80 plus times per year, some can lay 50 or more eggs at a time, but normally one snail equates to 480 in one year.  Snails do not need a partner, they have both organs, but they can fertilize with other snails. 
So this is the nightmare - Snails have parties with or without mates, and one snail reproducing equates to over 400 MORE!!!!!!  So it's a WAR, not for the faint hearted.  So what ammo do we use?   SKIP to #10 if you don't want the long version.  

Unless you are starting with raised beds with a perimeter border that's covered, and soil that has no eggs, etc., pests including snails will eventually be an issue, unless you are in a area where they are not populating.  I didn't have to worry about snails in Atlanta, but the Netherlands is a S N A I L  / S L A K K E N haven.  When it rains walking down a sidewalk you will have an issue in some areas of crunch crunch which are snails with houses, all over the sidewalks.  GROSS!!!! 

Since I am in an allotment garden with 100 or so others, those that don't work to control and rid their area, make it difficult for those that do.  Since our allotments are supposed to be totally organic, we are not suppose to use any chemicals that are not designated for household use.  

So what works? 

1.  Hands in your gloves and your trowel and pick them up late at night (with a flashlight), and in the early morning hours.  Dispose of as you choose.

Here the snails are huge, some 3" wide and 8 inches long, with of course the ones that are not fully grown ranging in various sizes, and the house snails, the babies are so tiny you can hardly see, but the adults with houses can be a couple inches tall or more.  A small snail can eat alot, but the big ones can eat through an entire stem on a pumpkin or cucumber plant.  My friend planted 10 pumpkins the smaller candy variety, they were well developed when she planted, around 12 inches high and 8 inches in leaves across, each plant was totally decimated, one plant had over 50 small and large snails on it, some the entire stem had been eaten through and it was just terrible to see.  When she set them out she didn't have much growing in her space, and nothing that they really like, so I guess the pumpkins were their SNAIL FESTIVAL.  

2.  The two plants that I have that they do not like are raspberries (with thorns) and blackberries with thorns.  I planted strawberries inside a circle of raspberries and they have done beautifully, now whether it's because they haven't found them yet, or if it is because they don't like the prickles from the raspberry thorns, I am not 100% sure, I did put some of last years dried shoots with thorns around them.  Everyone told me gritty sand, eggshells, gravel, oyster shells, sea shells, and none of those worked, in fact, the sand seemed to attract more.  

3.  I do use drie hoek on newspaper when it's dry, i just pin down the newspaper with stones and use the concentrated drie hoek, it makes a slimy mess of them and when I do it I can just with gloved hands ball up the paper and dispose of it the next morning.  I use the drie hoek instead of salt because it deters ants.  I also spray regularly or water with garlic water, I just mince up garlic and let it sit in the sun for a few days in a bucket of water with a net over and then strain and dilute with water in watering can or sprayer.  My hope is that it deters the squash bugs and other insects that aren't good, and makes the leaves not so tasty.  I have also sprayed wd40 on buckets and placed them around small plants, but the issue is them tunneling under, so now I just try to protect the stems as well by covering in aluminum foil or a banana peel with the inside peel against the stems and the outside I use canola oil on.  

4.  This is a battle here, so an old rotten board with newspaper and drie hoek work as a trap, and again, it's easy to pick up and get rid of.  

5.  Copper tape works to some extent, but unless it's a pot where you can put it on a stone so it doesn't get dirt and debris on it, it isn't so effective, and it isn't cheap.  I did glue down copper pennies on some pots and that worked better, but the new pennies are not made of copper.  

6.  Marigolds - I thought they were suppose to deter snails, but they decimated two 6" pots in two days, the only thing left was a bit of stem, so since the seeds were cheap I have sowed tons of seeds, and I'm going to use those as traps.  I'll update on my progress. 

7.  A quick story about the "19.99" covers, a few years ago there was the hype of these covers for plants, the idea was that the snails couldn't get to your plants.  Wow great, so this fool purchased and planted her lovely lettuce starts and put the cover on.  Wow first day amazing, not a bite eten, snail trails around the outside and on it, but none inside.  Fast forward to day 5, because these were starts I had done in the greenhouse, they were already beginning to ball when I planted, and I actually thought that would deter the snails also, I looked didn't see any snails and watered.  A few days later I went to the garden and was doing my weed pulling and daily check, the inside of the balls were full of snails, small snail and larger snails, and the outside also.  Every single plant was totally covered, it was a sickening mess.  I really didn't understand how that could have happened, until an older man said in Dutch of course, die slakken zijn slim (these snail here are smart), they will find their way in by tunneling under, and hiding under the leaves, where it's nice and moist and cool when the sun comes out, and unless you use a box that has a barrier in the bottom, on the sides and over the top, and assuming there are no eggs in your soil they will get in.  His solution, grow them in pots and hang them up, and check daily if one has climbed up the posts.  He uses a potting mix to plant in not garden soil.
For the rest of his garden he used a hand trowel with spikes on it to go over the soil on the outside of his beds, he said it's harder for them to crawl in the dirt than when it is compacted down, so they look for easy paths, i.e., stones to travel quicker and easier.  

8.  In really bad years I have resorted to baiting with beer traps (a plastic cup or tin can down in a hole so the top rim is the only thing above ground, let them go to drink the beer and they fall in, however here because the snails are so HUGE that didn't work, I had to actually use a flower pot with no bottom holes (a ceramic one), so they didn't climb back on by climbing on the top of each other.  The small cup and tin can just let them have a beer party, and they were laughing all the way back to my plants to have a final snack before the sun came up!!!!!!  The alternative to that trap is dry yeast in warm water, they are attracted to that as well.  The reason I know that?  In the US I used yeast in my compost to heat it up in the winter months, and I tried that here in Snailville, I ended up with a compost container full of snails, I had to take the entire batch to the recycle center because it was totally full of snails, all sorts!  Epic failure, but a lesson learned.  

9.  I use alot of essential oils at home, and I really want to do an experiment if certain essential oils will repel them if I keep plants or soil sprayed with it, but the issue here is the RAIN, most years we have rain at some point everyday, some weeks an entire week of mostly rain, it is much less this year, but I am holding my breath hoping for a dry summer.  

10.  So what are your choices for snail control?

A)  Plant victim crops on the outside of beds.  
B)  Beer or Yeast Traps
C) Cultivating the outer areas of beds and around the outside root areas of plants daily.
D)  Using drie hoek and newspaper or boards as bait (or salt instead of drie hoek) - But make sure it does not rain because salt can kill plants) 
E)   Using prickly items like raspberry branches to put around plants 
F)   Hand Picking Night and Mornings to control what you can see
G)  Plant Marigolds and plants they love as victim plants
H)  Garlic water to make leaves not taste so good
I)    Insecticidal soap for same reason as garlic water
J)    Resort to using organic pellets 
K)   Copper Tape 
L)    Luring birds to eat the snails (but beware they also eat your berries and other veggies.)

My conclusion is that A-L are all viable options, but I think it takes using ALL of those methods basically to control them.  The more you totally alleviate, the less that can reproduce. 


I think it's easier if you are not in an allotment garden, open compost piles with veggies attract snails, and many people think if they are eating there then they are leaving my vegetables alone.  There is no logic with that, because feeding them on demand also creates reproduction on demand which means they are multiplying much faster and developing much quicker because of a constant food supply on hand with no travel time involved to hunt for food.  So think if you have only 30 snails in the bin, 30x400 equates to 1200 new snails which turn into 6000 give or take a few.  I read an article that was written in England where they didn't want you to HARM THE SNAILs anymore.  Well world hunger is a thing, and the more snails eating plants means less food for all, so where's the logic in that?  What benefit do snails actually bring to a garden?  So far I haven't seen one thing that benefits from having snails in it's vicinity, certainly not my plants, so some hair brain doesn't want to control them, I hope they take over HIS HOUSE for a month or two, and everytime he walks they go CRUNCH under his feet and slime trails on everything he owns, then maybe he will help look for a viable ORGANIC solution. 

And Then The Rain Came

 And Then The Rain Came

After an early spring, our little dry spell ended yesterday with wild winds and today came the torrential downpour of rain, it was so heavy and hard, I fear my plants are trampled by the storm.  

My aubergine /eggplants 5 in total standing a foot tall looked so majestic this morning, I plucked their tiny leaves and bottom stems, and poured garlic water around, and placed crushed garlic cubes in their spaces, hoping it would ward off the evil snails and house snails that would want to gobble up their stems and leaves.  My strawberries in their hole filled barrels, turning red and still have some beautiful blooms.  My tomatoes are only 3-5 feet tall, but full of blooms, and I hope I had enough bees inside the greenhouse to pollinate them.  I have alot of hummers, (bumble bees), but my honeybees seem to have disappeared, and I normally depend on them for pollination.  I'm not sure if its because the bee keeper in the garden has moved or sold them, but my garden was always buzzing with them, but not this year.  The hummers and I have an unvoiced understanding, they are always welcome to visit, and they don't even bother when I move or trim leaves, they just keep on enjoying their snacks, and this year they loved the big blooms from the foxglove, it bloomed early and they can fit all the way inside it's huge blooms.  They have been busy with the rosemary bush, surprising though they don't like the thyme that is now in bloom, but normally the honeybees do.  I guess like us, they have their own ideas of what dessert is :) ..  The bell peppers in the green house are growing with gusto in my tunnel, but in the enclosed they seem to have stalled their growth and have started putting on fruits.  I was tempted to remove the fruits but decided it's nature, let them decide what to do.  My currants were totally full of strands, some even starting to change colors, but I'm afraid the wind and rains have damaged them, and I was hopeful for a good harvest because last years was a total bust.  My raspberries keep sending out new shoots and I keep removing them, I think for next year I am going to grow in 5 gallon buckets so they are contained, it's so much work trying to choose which go and which stay.  My grape vines are putting on lots of leafs, or at least one is, the others seem slow to take off this year.  I was hoping this year I would get to harvest more than a handful.  We have here a type of vole animal that eats the roots and sometimes entire plants, and they have tunneled throughout my garden, the latest victims were my prei, my beautiful prei, totally eten without a bit left in a hole.  Today I replanted those holes with red onions which I had left from the previous year, I let them sprout, then I take off the outer shell and usually have 2-4 or more different small plants which I cut apart at the bottom stem and replant.  I planted a few more of the Cardinal Beans today, I want to provide as many blooms as possible to attract to my aubergines.  

I guess in the morning I will know how much damage was done. 

Here's the tips I was given for growing aubergines / eggplants.

Take the new growth off the bottom and strip all but the top branches to allow the energy to go to producing fruit instead of foliage and new offshoots.  I planted mine in composted manure and biosoil surrounded by normal soil and I added crushed garlic to the hole in hopes of keeping the wool ratten at bay, and I hope I succeed because I have put all five out and have no spares. 

I also caged three in hopes of being able to cover if the rains continue, my thoughts were I could use part of my old green house and tie over the top.  I hope that isn't going to be needed. 

I dreaded the rain returning because it isn't good for my health, the dark dreary days and the rains and cold dampness make my back and joints hurt.  But maybe this year I'll be provided warmth and less pain. 

Happy gardening, and thanks for sharing my gardening ventures.

Space & Time

 A Space And Time

Perhaps we are connected within a space or realm that time holds the connection to, one which we have no control over and leaves us vulnerable to prey.  Maybe our existence depends on our ability to adapt and restructure and to overcome perils that are in our paths.

What happens when we can't adapt or restructure?  When we can't find it within ourselves to make the choices that will cause that reoccurrence?   Do we become like the lost city, or the people of the pyramids?  Lost but known that we were here because of some mythical story or a letter or maybe even a post that says I was here, in this place, that I was not unknown by many, but forgotten by some.  

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day Weekend

Well after another flopped Mother's day, I can say I am through celebrating that holiday.  Of one thing I am sure, good manners and R E S P E C T are still positive things, unless you live in the Netherlands and have an obstinate dutch woman that has no manners or respect. 
After spending hours standing on my feet baking one layer at a time crepes to make a 20 layer crepe for her, I arrive to find she has gone shopping for a few hours to shop for a pie for Mother's Day.  ROFL 
Ok I'm sure there are some that their daughters don't bake or daughter in laws, but really you buy your OWN?  Pfffft  I should have just laughed and left it sitting there and gone on my way which was my first inclination, but my good manners got the better of me, so I stayed until she arrived.  Then I was told the "hostess" always provides the food, now mind you I've been baking a cake or a vlaii as they call them here for 8 long years, without fail, and there sits a beautiful whipped cream and apricot layered cake which by this time the whipped cream has fallen because it's suppose to be eaten straight away, not sitting in a house where the temperature was 90 degrees because Pops was cold and had the heater in there on and the sun streaming in all the windows.  To say I was not happy is a very mild expression of how I felt, so I decided to each his own, eat MY cake and go home as quickly as possible, but she continued with her rhetoric, so I cut myself a slice and put on my plate and started eating, she asked where is ours?  I said there and you can take what you want, or you can eat YOUR PIE THAT YOU BOUGHT FOR MOTHER'S DAY.  She said I don't like that, and I said, well I don't like standing on my feet while I am sick BAKING FOR HOURS and then it isn't appreciated, so I guess we are even there. 

Afterwards I went home and went to my happy place and I was suppose to cook dinner for HER and everyone, but my sister called me from the states and we talked for hours on the phone while I was in the garden and since we only get to do that when she has a day free, which is not often, THAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO ME, so I talked and gardened and forgot the time, by the time my phone alerted the battery was going I was one and half hours late to cook and everyone was mad, thus what did I do?  I went home, drank coffee, took a shower, rested my back for an hour and returned to my happy place. 

So the moral to this story is, SOME PEOPLE ARE DIFFICULT AND MEAN and you can not please them, what you should do is just rid yourself of the toxic people in your life and move on, because honestly all they do is drag you down with them, you keep fighting to be the best person you can be, but ultimately they drag you down in the mud with them, and sorry but I like my feet clean and dry, even in the garden. 

Does my heart hurt?  Yes it does, more than most would understand, because I was taught good manners and treating Mother's with respect was the right thing to do.  However, I find that I am unable to comprehend why those do not matter to Dutch women, or that Dutch woman in particular.  I don't usually air my laundry out in the open, and was taught NOT to do that also, but there comes a time when you need to just let people see for themselves WHY YOU STRUGGLE.  I struggle because of the insensitive and utterly rude and mean people that surround me, and as my Mama said, if you lay with dogs you are gonna get fleas.  So I need to pick myself up out of the mire and spray some flea protectant and get away from these people.  Toxic pest ridden environments bring on health issues, worsen health issues and make for an unhappy life, thus sometimes we need to pull out the pesticide and start spraying.

 

Gardening This Week PRIMA

 Gardening 2022 May 1st Friday -- 

Because I planted mustard basically over most of one garden, and because we did not have the typical Spring rain that lasts for weeks, I had very few weeds, which was lovely, actually it is HEAVENLY.  There are some tiny ones, but so far that's been a breeze, and I could not be happier.  For the first time since having these gardens I could actually do things that needed doing without first having to clear paths (except one area, the area behind one garden where I have storage is under trees and full of leaf debris, but a good sweep should take care of most of that, I started that tonight after sweeping the other pathways and really over did my back, sweeping is not good for the back at all!  

So let's talk about what is growing, I have tomatoes already in the ground in the greenhouse, and some bell peppers.  I also have peppers and bell peppers planted outside.  My sage plant that is three years old is getting very large and is in full bloom.  My borage plants are starting to grow well, and the cat mint plant is also very large despite me cutting him back in the fall, as well as my lemon melisse herb.  The star of the show or stars I should say are the trees, the plum has alot of plums, the apple has alot of tiny apples, and sadly, my Russian peach tree nothing, I think I have to take it out, it had leaf curl and was not doing well, so I shaved him and I hope that and some meds and he will recover.  The other star of the show - my COMFREY, and lo and behold I have one that is white flowers and the others the traditional purple.  They did well overwintering, and didn't seem to have minded the temps here, or all the rain.  My Limburg spinach is coming up randomly, and the beans I planted a week ago are coming up.  The raspberries are growing rapidly despite the cutting back I did, and one has blooms.  My strawberries in their standing barrels with holes cut in and plants poking out have large berries already.  I want in a couple of weeks to build a wooden storage area for my pots and containers, fertilizers, etc., and something that looks presentable, not mix match.  

I need to turn the compost in the open bin, and check the other bins to see if there is anything composted.  I'm really not going to grow an extensive amount of veggies this year, just the things that I eat on a regular basis.  I do have a hundred plus leeks that went in the ground over the weekend, and a row of shallots, a row or two of peas, a couple of cabbage and salad fixings, and a few more paprika plants and tomatoes, I have those at home growing so I can water easily daily, but they are still too small to set out.  Of course a couple of courgettes, and cucumbers and I am hoping my tiny cucumbers do well, they are just now coming up from seed, a little late, but fingers crossed.  

I also planted a gooseberry plant that I stuck a branch down in dirt last year, he doesn't seem to have minded rehousing.  

Normally here next week would really be the week to start, so alot is growing ahead of normal, always a good thing.

All in all, the sun and the beauty of watching items grow, amazing!

A Gardener's Prayer

Thank you for all the beauty you bring into my world, 
Thank you for all the wonderful tastes that you bring to my table
Thank you for all the bees, butterflies, birds and other creatures that work to pollinate my garden.
Thank you Lord for allowing me these pleasures.  

Corona Free or Corona Dormancy?

 After nearly 3 years of Corona and it's variants running rampant around Europe and the rest of the world, being under quarantine and house arrest so to speak for months, it is really hard to believe the exhilarating feeling one has from feeling like perhaps we have reached some level of freeness, but at the same time I am still wearing masks in public spaces indoors although I seem to be frankly one of the few that is.  We are starting to see the crunch from Putin's war, as sunflower oil and flour are becoming rare to find in the shops, and fuel prices have escalated to the point of unbelievable prices, but in my world, spring and her wonders came early this year and gardening has begun, so whether corona again overtakes us, or leaves us, at least I have an early start to the grow season and have sunshine and warmth, and those two things make me a happy person.  Blessings from above, the bees working their magic on my rosemary, and the cabbage moths were flying blinding about searching for unsuspecting targets, their white butterfly appearance is really a cover for what they do to cabbage and cabbage family plants, but I still like to see them fluttering around.  I have not seen the dragon flies yet, but I am sure soon they will be darting around at high speeds.  Spring for me is a metamorphosis simply like the butterfly I come out of the winter fog of depression from having no sunshine to an eager to take flight person that can't wait to dig in the dirt and watch seeds come to life, plants put on new colors and blossoms that come in varied shades from different plants.  I am even happy to see the sunny yellow faces of the dandelions as they spring into action, their beauty which feeds a multitude with their blossoms and makes horrible rocky ground become a nice planting spot if one can uproot them from their habitat to actually plant something else.  So corona free or not, spring has come and for me, that makes my world ok.

Blessed be.

 

Blessed With Warm Weather in 2022

 AN EARLY SPRING 2022

I am ready to put tomato plants and bell peppers in my greenhouse in the ground.  They have been outside at home on the table for a couple of weeks now and have outgrown their pots to the point of getting root bound, so I am sure they will be happy to have their feet in the ground so they can spread out.  

I spent yesterday replanting a one foot cutting from my gooseberry plant that was broken last year and I put in soil and rooted (well he did all the work, I just stuck him in the ground and watered).  I hope he will like his new home, he liked where he was rooted, but it's in a corner where there is no room for him to grow into a large plant, so I moved him with my blueberry bushes.  They still look scrawny, so I think I need to invest in a couple of new plants and put those two inside until they recover from their lazy streak or whatever it is they are doing or not doing.  

That's actually the gist of this post, when something isn't doing well, sometimes it is just best to take him up and put him in some fresh gardening soil in a pot and tuck away and let it recover, I don't think the variety I have is conducive to the harsh winters here and I can't be certain it is the species that I purchased, because let's face it, mix ups can happen with planting sticks at nursery's, so sometimes we do all we can to make plants happy and it just doesn't seem to help, sometimes they need to recover like humans, a little time resting and rehabilitation.  Plant rehabilitation can be as simple as that, a pot and good soil and rest, other times we may need to treat an infested or diseased plant, and the same methods can be used, treat and in a pot and rest.  

My other issue is my Russian peach tree does not like the wet climate here, it is used to the sunnier temps that were in it's region, as well as the cold in the winter months, and I have plucked his poor leaves off and I am going to treat him tomorrow to a good dose of epsom salt water via his roots and a spray of waters of peroxide to kill any fungus.  I hope that perhaps that will help rid him of whatever fungal issues he may have and stop the leaves from turning into clubbed leaves.  There were no signs of aphids, and hopefully they don't attack him now that I removed so many of his leaves, fingers crossed.

I have planted one bed with green beans and yellow beans and a row of pole beans, scarlet runners and a blackish purple hull sort, I like the scarlet runners in soup dried, but honestly I grow them for the pretty flowers and because they attract pollinators (shhh that's an insider secret).  

At home my front tiny garden has yellow and orange calendula blooming and bell flowers hanging that are pink and purple varieties, and I have a few plants in my containers, I still want that cottage feel, but the entire front is paving stones and gravel, so my plants are growing in gravel or in between the pavers, not ideal, but it works, and I actually think the plants are stronger than those growing in my regular garden because their roots are wrapped around stones and buried deep in what dirt they manage to reach.  

I feel so blessed that spring was a month earlier, having a warm April is a God sent gift from above, and one I am thankful for.  Long winters and the cold are not my "cup of tea", and my body really doesn't do well with those, so sunshine and warmth are always welcomed by me.

I wish all of you a happy gardening season this year.