A Conversation for Seasonal Gardening Timetable

Lunar gardening

Post 1

Captain Kebab

Get out there with a torch on those summer nights and round up those slugs!

I'm not going into how one might go about that - it'll all end in tears! smiley - winkeye


Lunar gardening

Post 2

Nora - back from the Dublin meet!

Actually, the part about finding them is kind of fun. A torch helps toward the end, but if you live in a reasonably quiet area you can hear them munching, and track by sound.

I'm a wimp about what to do with them afterward, though - I put them in a derelict site next door. It's a fair bet that some come back.

smiley - strawberries


Lunar gardening

Post 3

Captain Kebab

I can't say I blame you - they are one of nature's more revolting creatures. I have used salt in the past, but it does seem cruel - it must be an exceedingly unpleasant way to go.


Lunar gardening

Post 4

Nora - back from the Dublin meet!

Yeah, that's what I thought. If you have to kill them, I think the best way would be the beer jars in the ground method. At least they die happy smiley - smiley. Encouraging hedgehogs would be good too, but our garden is surrounded by a high wall, and there has so far been no sign of them.

I don't really mind slugs, except as someone who likes hostas. If you let them crawl on your hand, though, they gnaw a bit (not the hostas!).

smiley - strawberries


Lunar gardening

Post 5

Mina

Don't kill leopard slugs! They are beneficial. Apparently.

I don't kill mine, although I only seek them out at night when it's warm. I chuck them in the compost heap. They can eat what they like there. They also tend to eat dead plants before they eat live plants, so don't tidy the garden up too much. If you encourage ground beetles, they eat the slugs, so make sure if you do use beer traps they have a small lip above ground, otherwise they fall in as well. smiley - yikes

I don't do much else by moonlight, but it's nice to go outside and smell the flowers that release their scent at night. A good time for mothwatching! Sometimes I think I've seen a smiley - bat, but I'm never quite sure. Definitely a summer hobby!


Lunar gardening

Post 6

Captain Kebab

So how do you encourage ground beetles? Please don't say, 'with slugs!' smiley - winkeye We have the occasional hedgehog and frogs from time to time, if that makes any difference. And how do you tell a leopard slug. Is it just spotty, or is it like an 8-foot long smiley - cat - if so I'm outa here! smiley - run

We seem to have acquired a smiley - bat - it came and circled the little stand of sycamores at the back of our house at dusk night after night last summer/autumn. It was smiley - cool I hope it comes back next year.


Lunar gardening

Post 7

Mina

http://www.texasflora.org/~marshall/svj/slugcity.html
That's a bit of a crap piccy of a fine leopard slug. They eat the other slugs, and snails. smiley - biggrin

As for ground beetles, they like hiding places, so lots of ground cover plants, small logs, or a pile of rocks. Somewhere nice and moist for them to stay during the day that won't be disturbed. The best thing is, they don't hibernate, so they are busy all year round, hoorah!

You could try putting up a smiley - bat box, in the hope your smiley - bat comes back. Then it might stay.
One of my friends was sitting in my back garden having a smoke sometime last year and said she saw a bat. I've never been lucky enough. smiley - blue


Lunar gardening

Post 8

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

We managed to get a bat in our living room last year. We live opposite some woods, and the thing came in from there last summer when we left the window open. They are impossible to catch. They can also hang onto sheer wallpaper, which is impressive. Eventually we got to the beastie before our cats did.


Lunar gardening

Post 9

Nora - back from the Dublin meet!

We used to get lots of smiley - batsmiley - bat in the States, but haven't seen any in Ireland. We have fewer species here; I think the current total is nine.

Good to know about the leopard slugs and ground beetles. Will keep an eye out for them this summer. Right now the snails are hibernating, so if you want to decrease your population just check around your drainpipes and any rocks and pick them off.
Do slugs hibernate?


Lunar gardening

Post 10

Captain Kebab

I shall try and make my garden more ground beetle and smiley - bat friendly. Fortunately, our smiley - cat is renowned for his inability to catch anything that isn't in a bowl.


Lunar gardening

Post 11

John the gardener says, "Free Tibet!"

The nocturnal pests that plague my gardens are mainly bipedal. The worst season is the spring, when the public appetite for gardening is at its peak; but plants continue to disappear fairly steadily anytime the ground isn't frozen too solid to rip them out. This is understandable when the culprit is someone who has taken rebirth as a human being by mistake, and feels nostalgic about being a slug; however, it's depressing to think that other perpetrators are passing themselves off for gardeners - who, as everyone knows, represent the pinnacle of evolution - by daylight.

JTG


Lunar gardening

Post 12

Captain Kebab

With this sort of pest there is much to be said for pruning them back with a samurai sword. In some areas this is frowned upon, however, and it can be rather messy. In the first instance, you could try attracting a large smiley - dog into your home. You need to ensure that the smiley - dog actually wants to come, however, or he may feel disinclined to guard your plants. smiley - winkeye


Lunar gardening

Post 13

John the gardener says, "Free Tibet!"

That reminds me of the axiom that there is some goodness to be found in everyone... sometimes it takes a while to compost. smiley - winkeye

JTG


Lunar gardening

Post 14

Captain Kebab

smiley - laugh


Lunar gardening

Post 15

Nora - back from the Dublin meet!

We have a similar kind of pest, but ours are the bottle-throwing kind. Crisp packets are also common smiley - grr.
Will keep the suggested method of control in mind smiley - winkeye.

smiley - strawberries


Lunar gardening

Post 16

tom

You realise of course that this thread is completely useless to anyone considering setting up a garden at Tranquillity base? Anyone got an aitrtight Bell Cloche? And a knowlege of hydroponics? And a heater - "just enough to keep the frost off".

The combination of dog and hedgehog is not likely to be a quiet one as when the hedgehog curls up the dog gets grumpy and lets everybody for miles around know. Advantages of having both in one garden do outweigh disadvantages tho.

I'm all for slug pubs but put a tile or slate or the like on stones to give an inch or two for slugs to crawl in but keeping out voles etc.

Oh - and wear a jumper. The moon gives a fair amount of light but no relevant heat smiley - winkeye

Strange how the crisp poke count has gone down since they knocked down the old school and rebuilt it half a mile further away...

Scrumping for apples is part of growing up (but so is getting laldie when you're caught) butI stopped growing spuds as they kept walking away and for two years running I had no goosegogs. I must have a chat with Mr Ishihara ....


Lunar gardening

Post 17

Captain Kebab

I'd have thought the lack of humidity at Tranquility base would preclude a ground frost.


Lunar gardening

Post 18

tom

You're getting the idea smiley - winkeye


Lunar gardening

Post 19

Mina

Tranquility base?


Lunar gardening

Post 20

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

I think he means 'gardening by earthlight', on the Sea of Tranquility, on the Moon. Gedditt??!! I did. Eventually.

Anyway, back on planet Sanity, there are useful things to do at moonlight. One is to plant lots of night scented stock (Matthiola) tobacco plants (Nicotiana sylvestris), or evening primrose (Oenothera), a patch of which should be sprouting in Essex somewhere before too long smiley - winkeye. I keep on banging on about the need to encourage nocturnal wildlife in one's garden so if you want to encourage lots of moths, then bats to eat the moths, then whatever eats bats, you could do a lot worse than sow some of these lovely flowers. You can also do what I do, which is to take a nice long drink outside on a warm summer's evening, inhale the scent, and use the natural cover of darkness to help ignore the fact that the rest of the garden looks like North Vietnam. Who said ignorance isn't bliss?


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