Happy Farming . com

So you like onions huh? Well me too.

In the YouTube video I showed you in a recent post Scott McGuire talks about the use of the word pest. He deals with pests by growing more produce and accepts the loss cause by so called pests. No doubt that when we experience some kind of pest it’s due to an unbalance in natures harmony. It’s not a slug problem, it’s a duck problem. There are too few ducks living in modern urban areas, actually close to none. And that’s fair enough. Most people want to control their garden down to each grass leave. If I were living out in the country side I would gladly encourage ducks to come live with me. So that would be a solution to the slug problem. But I’m getting a bit stubborn here, I’m not ready to give up my urban vegetable garden yet. I’m aware of and have tried most of the recommend slug fighting tactics just to wake up and find slugs partying between my onions… (nooo, that’s really gross, stay focused here ) Something about the way that Scott McGuire handles pests gives me new hope. So, what do slugs eat? In particular, what does Arion lusitanicus eat? And then I felt really dumb when I came across the document “The palatability of 78 wildflower strip plants to the slug Arion lusitanicus” from 1998 by Briner T. and Frank T.: It’s well known what the slugs love to eat – why the hell didn’t I provide those plants then? Let’s feed the poor bastards. Them hungry! Why eat sour onions and beets when you can have something like:

• Rapeseed (Brassica napus)
• Corn Poppy (Papaver rhoeas)
• Shepherd’s Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)
• Red Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum)

Yum!

Wildflower slug fence, coming up!

(palatability. really?… come on guys )

Here’s an interesting video from YouTube about back yard sustainability. Janaia Donaldson is interviewing Scott McGuire from Oregon about the project he’s running in the backyard of his rented property. The picture is lagging but that’s worst in the first 10 minutes when they talk face to face. After that they take a tour in Scott’s garden and the lagging becomes tolerable.

In the video you’ll find:

• Experimenting with growing wheat and amaranth
• Growing a medicine border
• Growing sun flower seeds
• Greenhouse for starting plants from seeds
• Drying herbs in greenhouse
• Dog kennel as chicken house
• Growing food for your animals
• Crimson clover as nitrogen fixer

and some other small but interesting things:

Birds like strawberries just as much as we do so some kind of protection is necessary for the fruits to survive. I made a wire mesh cage out of chicken wire with small hatches in the sides and on top. Then it’s possible to stick your hand in and grab some of the strawberries as they mature. I used a bunch of plastic ties to keep it all together and 6 sticks hammered into the ground. I’ve put some long grass cuttings between the soil and the fruits to keep the fruit clean and healthy.

It must be a depressing view for a bird :

It takes a while to build the cage but it’s definitely worth it:

Yum!

Okay, I’ll admit that it looks nice with the sharp edge between the raised beds and the lawn. It’s soft on the knees when you sow or weed, but I’m beginning to realize that there are some rather annoying disadvantages by alternating between lawn and beds like this.

First, this is what always happens near the edges of the raised bed, when the grass has been allowed to grow for some days. Water meant for the soil spills over onto the lawn part and the grass at the edges thrives big time. So go fetch a grass trimmer or a pair of scissors, because the lawnmower won’t go that close to the edge.

If there’s no wood and raised bed you’re doomed. It takes a lot of energy to keep the grass out of the soil meant for vegetables:

And these bastards (slugs) are having a great time hiding in the moist grass waiting to attack your vegetables at night:

Then there’s the water issue; as much as half of the water lands on grass making it grow like crazy, extracting nutrients from the soil. So that’s why I’m planning on starting from scratch with a part of my lawn / vegetable garden and buying a truckload of concrete slabs to lay out like this:

Yellow = house, grey = concrete slabs, brown = vegetable soil, green = hedge.

Several advantages comes to mind:

• Easier to fight the killer slugs, and they don’t like dry concrete
• The lawnmower goes on eBay
• The grass trimmer goes on eBay
• Only vegetables are provided with water
• Much easier to walk on the paths in all kinds of weather

Each concrete slab will be 50 x 50 cm (20 x 20 inch), making each bed 1 m (3.3 feet) across and making it easy to reach the middle.

Now make sure you follow up on this because this is going to be hard work and I might get lazy But this would be so good for the food production.

Here’s my first podcast and it’s all about potatoes:

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is my newest weapon against killer slugs: A small pie tin with a slight modification:

Cut an entrance hole for the slugs:

Fold the top of the entrance hole a bit to avoid sharp edges:

Turn the tin upside down, put some slug “poison” under it, and secure it by leaving some weight on top. It will keep the rain from reaching the pellets, so they’ll stay dry:

I’ve set up one trap at both ends of each bed that I have.

And as usual the cat just wanted to point out that I shouldn’t be exercising too much control over nature, so it flipped one of the traps open during the night and played with the pellets. It must be really boring around here during the nighttime

Okay, maybe it’s not essential or life threatening if you can’t grow peaches in Scandinavia, but boy do freshly picked peaches taste good. And it seems like my little peach tree have survived with all its leaves still on the tree. Earlier I’ve had problems with peach leaf curl but I put up a plastic shield to protect the tree against the rain:

There was certainly a greenhouse effect due to the shield and the tree is now full of small fruits in development:

Some of the leaves that were close to the plastic on the inside of the plastic cover look like they are affected a bit still but overall it seems like I have fended off the peach leaf curl:

Time will tell if the fruits will mature properly. I sure hope so. I took care of the pollination by hand with a small piece of cotton wool at the end of a bamboo stick:

Oh, and I found this little fellow sleeping behind the plastic at the foot of the tree:

Maybe it’s not warm enough for cockchafers yet…

Photo by juicyverve.

Dill attracts all kinds of beneficial insect to your garden and it can be used in the kitchen as well. That’s why it makes a lot of sense to grow dill along with your usual vegetables. The Latin name for dill is Anethum graveolens.

Soil
Find a spot with well drained soil, protected from wind and with full sun, or at least 6 hours of sun per day. Dill is a perennial plant that lasts for several years. Dig the soil well down to 45 cm (18 inch) since the roots are long making it difficult to transplant. It tolerates frost down to -4 deg. C (25 deg. F).
Soil pH should be in the range 5.5 to 7.5, preferably only up to 6.5.

Sowing
Dill can be grown from seed sowed in the spring outside in the garden after the last frost has passed, sometime in April or May. Cover the seeds lightly with soil. Rows should be between 30 to 46 cm (12 to 18 inch) apart.

Growing
Seedlings emerge in 1 to 2 weeks after sowing. Thin the plants so they will be 24 cm (9 inch) apart. Dill grows on a single stem to a height of 60 to 90 cm (2 to 3 feet) and the plant looks like fennel.

Harvest
When the flower heads appear no more leaves will be produced. This takes about 4 to 8 weeks after planting. Seeds can be harvested after the heads have turned brown.

Some animals do you a favour when it comes to removing bugs and pests from your garden. Here’s a list of those beneficial animals and how to attract them. If you’re wondering how each one of them is helping you out in the garden take a look at this post on beneficial animals.

Birds

Photo by faeryboots.

Birds love the sound of gently moving water, which will attract them to your garden. They also need a birdbath but make sure it’s not deeper than 8 cm (3 inch). When winter comes it’s best to have some sort of heating underneath the birdbath, so that the birds have access to drinking water. Food is necessary too of course, and planting trees with fruits or berries is a good idea when you want to attract birds. In the mating season birds need shelter and nesting material.

Dragonflies

Photo by Krikit ♥.

A pond is great for attracting dragonflies, but don’t put fish in it because they will go after the eggs. Dragonflies prefers to have big flat rocks near the pond where they can soak up energy from the sun. They’re solar powered and will only fly when they reach a certain temperature. They need shelter but two thirds of the pond surface must be out in the sun.

Frogs

Photo by timitalia.

Frogs prefer quiet water and no fish, since the fish will feed on frog eggs. Frogs spend much of their time above water so you’ll need to build a pond with sloped edges making access to surrounding ground easier. When out of the water they like to hide in damp and cool places like half buried clay pots. In the winter frogs lie dormant at the bottom of their pond.

Rove Beetles

Photo by dhobern.

Rove beetles like decomposing organic material lying around: Leaves, decomposing fruits, bark, decaying trees etc.

Tiger Beetles

Photo by .Larry Page.

Tiger beetles are attracted by lights at night. They like to hide in high grass around 8 cm (3 inch), under logs or under mulch. Give them access to water by filling a plate with gravel and placing it on the ground. The rain will keep it fresh.

It’s annoying to have your vegetables eaten up by bugs. Luckily it’s possible to get help from other insects, because they’ll attack those harmful bugs and eat them or feed them to their young. Some plants naturally attract these beneficial insects and some even attract several helpful insects to your garden. In the table below you’ll find the beneficial insects in the left column and the names of the attracting  plants in the top row. Below the table you’ll see a picture of each plant. By planting these in your garden you’ll be able to create a big insect magnet and get help hunting down those hungry bugs:

Coreopsis:

Photo by kabils.

Cosmos:

Photo by Kanko*.

Dill:

Photo by Eran Finkle – ערן פינקל.

Fennel:

Photo by Anika Malone.

Goldenrod:

Photo by Benimoto.

Lemon balm:

Photo by color line.

Sweet alyssum:

Photo by hortulus.

Do you already have any of these beneficial insects in your garden? Where are they hanging out?