Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Who’ll Stop the Rain?

As our unseasonably cold and wet weather continues, my anxiety over the newly germinating seeds has hit fever pitch.  Last Sunday I watched anxiously for any sign of the hail that was predicted and finally had to run out to cover the 6-paks of seedlings with empty flats when ¼” hail started pelting the gardens.  The seedlings were mostly the tomatoes, basils, peppers, okras, stevia and wonderberry.   On Monday morning, Baby Kitteh followed me out to the garden where I found that the tiny hail had made minute impressions where it had smacked into the cotyledons of the banana squash, which I hadn’t covered, but by afternoon the holes were filled back in.  The seedlings in the 6-paks did all right with the flats protecting them, even the ‘Cherokee Purple’ tomatoes, which are just starting to push their first true leaves.

Unfortunately, the constant cool, wet weather has brought on another problem: slugs and snails!  This morning I pulled two giant snails off the sides of the cucumber pots (they had already done some sampling) and after checking underneath a couple more pots I found a whole neighborhood of slugs cooling their antennae until nightfall.  So just before sundown today, I went out and looked under every pot and pulled off the slugs.  I’m not good at salting them or stepping on them so I put them on the bottom of a basket with the hopes that the birds will find them and make them a tasty meal.  Do birds even like slugs?



6 comments:

  1. Saw you in the Sacramento Bee this morning! Nice to meet a new blogger here in Northern California. Added you to my blogroll. You also might want to check out Blotanical.com if you're interested in garden bloggers around the world.

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  2. Thank you for the comment Charlotte. I'm still new to blogging so appreciate any advice. I'll check out Blotanical.com. :-)

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  3. I also saw you in the Sacramento Bee this morning! Yeah another Sacramento area blogger! I live in Roseville and grow succulents. I have quite a few followers and follow some great garden blogs. It rained again today darn it. And yes those snails are a pain in the butt for me too. They love to eat succulents.

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  4. The rain and cold are certainly holding back the vegetable crops but it's really been a good thing for my corn and baby pumpkin transplants yesterday. More about that in the next blog. Great to meet you Candy!

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  5. This rain is really bumming me out! Hey I saw your blog in Bee also. It's nice to see another local blogger. I am a fanatic succulent grower and you will see if you check out my blog! I live in Roseville. I have some followers and I also follow quite a few great gardeners. I will follow you. Curious to find out how your seedlings do. Cross your fingers we get normal weather soon.

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  6. Sorry about the triple post. I have been having trouble with comments on blogger today. It told me my comment was in error so I did it again! LOL

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