A Bunny Bed

Stepped out this morning and noticed activity in the garden.  Something was hiding in the tomatoes.  Expecting a squirrel or chipmunk, I moved closer.  Out shot a rabbit!  Guess who left the garden gate open last night?  Damage was minimal, with Mr. Bunny only making a cool, shady bed for himself.  :)

Garden Report - June 2012

As long as I'm not getting any quilting done,

I may as well show you what I have been doing! 

Planting flowers and dividing perrenials.

Cleaning up and mulching my hosta bed.

Potting a miniature hosta with impatiens for the front porch.

Eagerly awaiting blooms on my Jack-In-the Pulpit.

Cleaning my shed and garage.

Moving perrenials, adding annuals and mulching the front flower bed.

Oh, and did I mention tearing apart my very crooked logs, removing large rocks,

providing a new foundation, then returning the logs to their original (straight) arrangement, and pounding in large spikes to prevent them from shifting again? 

Thankfully I had help with that project!

 Waiting for warm nights so my impatiens will really start to bloom and grow.

Planting in color groupings.

Waiting for my pink and white torenia to bloom as much as the purple ones.

Hoping these are the only bunnies to get near my copper colored Coral Bells and assorted begonias. 

Saving baby birds...found this little fella in my flower bed while planting.  He was baking in the sun and I thought for sure he was a goner.  He was barely breathing and looked totally limp.  I went to collect a garden tool to scoop him up - and when I returned he raised his head up high and opened and closed his beak.  After this exertion he flopped back onto the ground and had to rest and recover.   I hadn't planned on gardening that morning - but I'm so glad I found him in time.  I put him back in the nest and stayed away from the nest for the rest of the day so Mama House Finch could minister to her wee babe.  She must have fed him well because he and his siblings all flew the coop this week.

And of course, there is the vegetable garden.  This was to be a simple project.  Till, plant, mulch.  Water daily. Weed here and there.  Pick the tomatoes and peppers.  But along came the invasion of the slugs.  Seriously, the invasion is of biblical proportions!  I've baited them with beer three nights in a row and killed about 450 so far.  I removed my log border and will have to remove my wooden planks if the numbers don't go down soon. 

Here is the pepper they just can't get enough of.  Its my purple pepper plant - the one I care about most!  As you can see my heavy dousing of broken egg shells did not deter them a bit.  If the onslaught continues I'm going to take this plant out of the garden and pot it.  All my plants were in pots last year, and I got great results - and NO slugs.

Respiratory woes have slowed me down greatly for the last 6 weeks.  Just taking it day by day - sometimes hour by hour.  What I've done here - with help - should have taken me about half the time.  But what ya gonna do?  At the end of the work day, I'm happy to just get the essential chores done inside and out.  I have no energy left for quilting, blogging or anything else.  I am finally breathing easier now, so if Mother Nature cooperates with the pollen counts, I can finally get back to quilting and blogging on a regular basis.  Cross your fingers!  :)

Beer Traps

I've been pretty annoyed with the damage slugs have done to my garden.  They have attacked my pepper plants something fierce!  I tried fighting back the organic way - with egg shells - to no avail.  Also tried a spray-on pesticide, but it has to be reapplied every time you water your garden - and of course it gets into the ground water.  So that was unacceptable.  Then I heard about beer traps:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4724852_beer-traps-slugs.html

Boy oh boy, were they effective!  It seems slugs are most active at night, so I put 7 traps out at dusk.  All seven were full this morning.  I'll spare you the ugly sight that greeted me - but I trapped and killed around 200 of those nasty buggers!

Now my son says its a terrible waste of beer, but I'm pleased as punch!