Well, it's plain here that the slugs are beginning to hatch. Tiny ones are clinging to the bottom of every container they can get to, it seems. Now is a good time to lay some "traps" for them. Put a piece of flat board just about anywhere and they will come and hide under it. Anything flat will do. I picked up a small, rectangular plastic container--I think it once resided in one of our coolers. There must have been a dozen baby slugs under there.
I dispatch slugs to the Happy Hunting Ground via a 64 oz plastic jug of ammonia/water. When it gets too gross, I put it in the garbage, with the cap on the jug of course. My friend puts hers in her compost and sometimes I do, too, but it's pretty nasty-looking AND smelling. She also carries her ammonia water in a pail, but I'm too squeamish. I tried that and I just didn't like seeing the yuck close up.
Meanwhile, indoors, I "garden," too:
I dispatch slugs to the Happy Hunting Ground via a 64 oz plastic jug of ammonia/water. When it gets too gross, I put it in the garbage, with the cap on the jug of course. My friend puts hers in her compost and sometimes I do, too, but it's pretty nasty-looking AND smelling. She also carries her ammonia water in a pail, but I'm too squeamish. I tried that and I just didn't like seeing the yuck close up.
Meanwhile, indoors, I "garden," too:
This is an avocado pit/seed that has grown a root. The stem has not yet left the seed. It takes quite a long time to get these to spout, but if you put 4 half toothpicks into the "waist" of the pit, and put the flattest end into a small container with water in it up to the toothpicks, it will eventually sprout MOST of the time, and come to look like this:
Sometimes, the pit just rots and you toss it in the compost. Nothing ever is 100%--there are always a few misfires in the mix.
March is when I start my tomatoes, lettuce and spinach, all from seed. When the tomato plants get about six inches tall, I put them out on our sheltered front porch--lettuce and spinach starts can go out there, too. If the weather gets unseasonably cold at night, sometimes I get worried and bring them inside, just for the night. If they stay inside too long, they'll grow too tall and "leggy." So start some things--it's fun to watch them grow!! Spring WILL be here soon, at least according to the calendar. If Mother Nature has other ideas, she will win, of course.
