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By Hilda, on June 8th, 2011
For the most part I’m very tolerant of all the world’s creatures, but I really hate slugs. I don’t think I could stand to look at their disgusting sliminess even if they were benign, harmless creatures. But the fact they can wipe out a flat of seedlings overnight – after I’ve spent a month or two nurturing the tiny plants – makes them an especially despicable enemy.
Recently a group of my friends had an impromptu discussion on Facebook, regarding organic methods of slug control. I have to admit, I never had much luck with some of the home remedies that have been touted for generations – like beer, for example. I kept shallow pans of beer embedded in my garden soil all spring one year, and don’t think I ever found a single drowned slug in them.
But several gardeners I know suggested an organic product called Sluggo, which is said to be completely safe to pets and wildlife when used as directed. Its active ingredient is iron phosphate, which occurs naturally in the soil and works differently from chemical poisons. Here’s what the manufacturer’s website says:
Sluggo is attractive to slugs and snails, luring them from their hiding places and plants. Ingestion, even in small amounts, will cause them to cease feeding. This physiological effect of the bait gives immediate protection to the plants, even though the slugs and snails may remain in the area. After eating the bait, the slugs and snails cease feeding, become less mobile and begin to die within three to six days. Dead slugs and snails may not be visible as they often crawl away to secluded places to die. Plant protection will be observed in the decrease in plant damage.
Using coffee grounds in the garden is another folk remedy that now actually seems to have a little science behind it, according to this study reported in Science News.
And of course, there’s always hand-to-hand combat. Hand-picking was my dad’s slug control method of choice. He’d go out at dawn (although the Extension Service at Oregon State University recommends two hours after sunset), scoop up the slimy vermin with a plastic spoon, and drop them into a Mason jar filled with salt water. This actually worked pretty well – it seems like there is a finite number of these pests around, and by reducing their numbers early in the season you can help your plants survive the onslaught.
By Hilda, on August 23rd, 2010
 image source: stock.xchng
I personally hate the roar of power mowers so much that I’ve been known to daydream about adopting an adorable miniature goat to keep my front lawn neatly trimmed. (It’s not legal, unfortunately, to keep livestock where I live.) A few years ago I even published a short article in Audubon magazine describing how the city of Chattanooga was using goats to control the kudzu on steep slopes where it wasn’t safe to operate heavy machinery.
So I was interested to find this Wall Street Journal article, called Free-Range Landscaping, about using goats to clear large, overgrown areas. It’s a good read, and the website includes an amusing video of goats at work on the grounds of the Vanderbilt Mansion. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Recently, the patch of weeds behind Steve Holdaway’s Chapel Hill, N.C., home grew so unkempt that he hired outside help. For six hours, the crew’s members tackled tall grass and thorny blackberry plants and toiled without a break—other than to chew their cud, that is.
His workers: seven hungry—and carbon-emission-free—goats.
As more homeowners, businesses and towns seek to maintain land with fewer chemicals or fossil-fuel-powered machinery, a growing number are trying goats to get rid of unwanted vegetation.
Generally, companies truck goats to work sites (some gas required) where the animals munch inside portable fencing or electric netting, often powered by solar panels. Prices can range from $200 a day for a dozen goats to upward of $1,000 for larger herds of 100 or more. On bigger projects, animals may stay overnight supervised by the business owners or specially trained guardian dogs.
The article also made me think of an interesting property I saw on a garden tour earlier this summer. The homeowners had kept a neat swath of lawn around their home and planting beds, while turning the rear of the property into a natural wildflower meadow (photo below), foregoing the need for either goats or heavy machinery.
The meadow is separated from the manicured section of yard by a stone edging and an “arch” made of tree limbs. The person you see walking in the meadow is actually on a path — a narrow strip of mowed grass that bisects the meadow, allowing you to wander through it and enjoy the wildflowers and the steady hum of insects.
I’m sure a herd of goats could tame this meadow and turn it into a flat pasture in no time, but I really love the way it looks here, all wild and beautiful with the tall, swaying grasses and bright spots of color from wildflowers. Though I have to admit, I didn’t venture very far down the path at all — this city girl is far too scared of ticks to be completely seduced by the romance of a wildflower meadow.
By Hilda, on July 30th, 2010
Here’s a screenshot of a Los Angeles Times garden blog post that caught my attention:(The text and photos in this post are quite interesting, and you can click on the photo to view and read the entire thing.)
I’ve never been a fan of the sweeping expanses of lawn that have become the hallmark of American suburbs, so I love the design of this house in general — the covered porch, rather than a large lawn, is what provides a measure of privacy.
With such a tiny front yard as this, it would be easy enough to care for turf grass (even in drought stricken Los Angeles) but the homeowners have gone one step further and installed a xeriscape – a landscape of drought-tolerant plants that don’t require supplemental irrigation. According to the article, they took advantage of a program that offers rebates to residents who tear out turf and replace it with plants that don’t need much water. (I’ve loved this idea ever since I wrote about it for Continental, the inflight magazine.)
Even after the rebate, however, the homeowners reportedly spent $10,000 on design and installation for their showcase garden! I think it’s this high initial cost that keep so many people enslaved to their front lawns. I’d get rid of my grass in the blink of an eye if it weren’t so prohibitively expensive to do so… what about you?
By Hilda, on June 26th, 2010
This might just be the best horticultural news I’ve heard so far this year — the USDA is sponsoring research that shows fighting back against Japanese beetles may be as easy as adding a companion planting of geraniums to your vegetable patch or rose garden.
Standard, garden center geraniums apparently contain some sort of neuro-toxin that affects the beetles. A recent article in Agricultural Research magazine reports the following:
Within 30 minutes of consuming the petals, the beetle rolls over on its back, its legs and antennae slowly twitch, and it remains paralyzed for several hours. When paralyzed under laboratory conditions, the beetles typically recover within 24 hours, but they often die under field conditions because predators spot and devour them.
The poisoning effect of geranium flowers on beetles is not a new discovery; it has been reported in scientific papers dating back to the 1920s. But the phenomenon has not been studied in depth—how or why it happens—until recently, when Agricultural Research Service scientists in Ohio picked up where scientists left off more than half a century ago.
Scientists are now trying to isolate the compounds that paralyze the hapless beetles, so they can develop a natural pest control product. But really, doesn’t it seem easy enough to go with companion planting, if it turns out to work well? Geraniums are inexpensive and easy enough to grow in most places, and any sort of spray-on product that’s developed is likely to end up as one more contaminant in the water supply.
If you try this, please report on the results!
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About
The Author
Hilda Brucker
 Hilda combines her
love of gardening
and passion for writing
in her blog entries.
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