Monday, September 16, 2013

Slugs meet their Doom


After having a laugh last night at the comment Leonie left me at how her hubby wasn't impressed at the idea of having ducks to solve her slug problem :))....I promised I would share with her our slug trap that Mike makes up for attracting and sending those slimy critters to their doom!

The only thing you need is a milk bottle or similar, a sharp knife to cut it and some dregs of your hubby's beer.....hopefully he's obliging!

 As you can see the cabbages were getting devoured.....as for the spring onions that was the lambs taste testing!

Simply cut a little window two thirds of the way down and leave the flap as shown, fill with beer or if you don't have that you can make your own yeast solution, though we found it took a day before it was effective.  Dig it in a bit to anchor it and voila! once the beers in there you'll be attracting slugs near and far to fall into a drunken oblivion.  And in our house we always have an abundance of milk bottles, so everytime one is emptied it's pretty effortless to make another slug trap for the garden.

But CAUTION!! 
And I really mean this!  
Empty regulary or beware next time you empty it.

 If you do forget I strongly recommend doing so, at the end of the garden.....down wind.... and holding your breath RUN!!
Stale beer and dead slugs make for a wicked stench.

But saying that, it's really effective :)
Also another one is sprinkling used coffee grounds around your worst effected plants, the caffiene is a natural deterent to slugs.  
Mum gets ours from a local cafe, but if you already have quite acidic soil use it sparingly as it does make it more acidic if you use it to often.....so it may be best to save it for protecting your young seedlings.

But since we're on the subject of gardening and recycling I thought I'd show you our climbing bean and pea tunnel.......actually to be honest any excuse would have sufficed!


Mike had a whole sheet and a half of reinforcing mesh and some rebar left over from the concrete pad we just did, and came up with this tunnel for me.  
I'm super happy with it and I'm looking forward to seeing how this is going to look at the height of summer!  I've underplanted with some Calendula's aswell, so it should look lovely.....oooooh an edible tunnel!  Doesn't take much to excite me these days!
Now I just need to get Mike to hang the gate and fix the fence posts and it will look a treat.

Oh and tonight the boys and I tried artichokes for the first time.
 Mike ( my ex chef ) topped and tailed and boiled them in lemon juice and water, and served them with garlic butter! Yum all around!
Which is good because their are a heap of flower buds on these plants....and I've planted them everywhere


 

9 comments:

Leonie said...Best Blogger Tips

You are full of tips and tricks! Who knew beer and slugs don't mix! Those artichokes sound delish and i wold get pretty freeking excited about that tunnel too! Exciting!

Leonie said...Best Blogger Tips

THanks for this Laura!! My brocolini plants will thank you too!
And you are inspiring me so much! I love artichokes and haven't thought of growing them. And that tunnel is going to look amazing! With calendula too ! wow what a garden!

Susan C. said...Best Blogger Tips

Edible tunnel! Well I bet you you will know where to look for the kids on a warm summers day.
I must try artichokes too one day, very exotic .......I think I have been put off them by my childhood experiences of brussell sprouts...eeeerrrrggghhh!

Notchka said...Best Blogger Tips

That tunnel is inspired - I can just imagine it covered in peas with that view down to the gate and the water beyond. I must admit I'm slightly envious you can grow artichokes up your way - yum yum!

Rachelle said...Best Blogger Tips

Love the bean tunnel, I'm going to have to do something similar myself I think.
Hope your ducks work well, you need a good amount of land for successful ducks; we tried it on a suburban section; not a success. Boy duck did taste good though!

Unknown said...Best Blogger Tips

ewww slugs! we have them come under the doors at night... they are always gone by morning but we see the trails... ew ew ewwww

Schulz Family said...Best Blogger Tips

I tried doing the beer thing as we were given a special contraption for xmas. We don't have slugs so much as snails and it didn't work for snails. I love your edible tunnel.

Max said...Best Blogger Tips

@Nin


nin, artichokes will grow down here, i grow lots in my garden no probs x

Max said...Best Blogger Tips

we had major slug issues here last spring, but now we have chooks hoping they have gobbled them all up, if not i shall certainly have need of your trap.
your edible arch is going to be amazing, what a clever idea. i bet the kids will love playing in there too.
plant lots of artichokes, once you have a taste for them you'll want to bottle them too-i have a patch in my garden and i'm lucky if they last a week!
your garden looks and sounds amazing Laura x

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