Slug Fest & Super Sugar Snap Peas

The birds are seriously slacking. Usually I have a pretty decent sized mob that combs through the yard and gardens but they are otherwise distracted at the moment. We had some rains, enough to green the place up a bit and out came many more bugs. While I have squished a few cucumber beetles.. I am at war with the explosion of slugs. Usually the birds keep the numbers down, but not this year... and there are tons of them.

So I am out in the garden every evening and every morning just as the sun just starts to peek over the horizon.. chopsticks in one hand, jar of salty water in another. I don't care to handle the slugs, but the chopsticks let me reach just a little further in the tangle of peas to get at them. I have a bag of diatomaceous earth, but can't locate it. No doubt as soon as I get the next bag, the first one will reappear.

So the Burpee Super Sugar Snap Peas are in full swing. They are sooooo good. Even when they are very filled out.. voluptuous pods.. they are tender, juicy and sweet. They produce pretty well, but are so delicious that one pack of seeds was definitely not enough for our family of 3. I keep trying to add them to dinner and salads, but without an armed guard they get devoured seconds after I rinse them. My husband and daughter prefer them plain to boot!

Definitely will have to triple how many of those I plant next year. They are eating and picking them so heavily that I will have to buy the seed as no pod gets left behind.

The snow peas I have picked the last pound for a friend, let's just call him Tom. Although good.. and Tom loves them.. I am letting all of them go to seed now. Next year they will be planted again and I should have more than enough to also harvest the shoots.

So I sent off the extras to Tom.. several bunches of radish, about a pound of snow peas, 1 1/2 pounds of shelling peas, a 1/2 pound of dill, a 1/2 pound of chives, a massive massive bunch of catnip, a pound of kale, a 1/2 pound of arugula, 2 heads of romain lettuce, and a 1/2 pound of sugar snap peas. I know my dill is pretty powerfully flavored and Tom is so hooked on it that there is no such thing as too much... and his cat comes flying out of nowhere to pounce the catnip the moment my husband walks in the house (this rather large cat will try to climb up you to get at it).. but Tom tried the snap peas while talking to a mutual friend (will call him Jimmy.. who used to live down the block and used to get the extras).. and raved about them. lol Jimmy called us and said he is more than happy to drive across town should we need to unload extras.

I get as far as saving the seeds to perpetuate the crops, but I don't put up as much as I should. It gives me a lot of joy to share. Jimmy and Tom as well return the favor.

Anyways... the sun is almost coming up. I need to go get my chopsticks and get to slug hunting.

Potatoes

I decided today that I am not weeding... I am collecting fresh compost material.

So the potatoes are setting flower buds. Not all potatoes do this though... many of the current cultivars for commercial production are hybrids and are propagated by means of the tubers. So if you decide to take a chance on a bag of sprouted potatoes in your fridge, don't be surprised if they don't flower. Also.. you would really want to think twice about the store spuds as many of them come with baggage. By that I mean viruses and other pathogens which may either be difficult to detect.. or the main way they can express there are issues are by reduced crop yields.

There is a way around that.. but it does involve sprouting the eyes from the potatoes and then cutting the sprouts of a few inches up to then root in clean potting medium. It is banking off of the sprouts growing faster than the viruses can infect them.
So they set out flowers.. and then after pollination they create fruit. If you leave the fruit to ripen, you can harvest the seed and ferment them much like collecting tomato seeds. To grow a crop from seed though will take roughly 2 years. 1st year the plants will produce usually just tiny taters which then can be used as seed potatoes the following year. The results.. well they will vary. Don't expect them to breed true.. very few strains do that. This is however one of the ways new strains are created. Then keeping the strain true is just a matter of clonal propagation by replanting of the tubers.
The matter of hilling them to get a greater crop is kind of up for debate. Reason being that it depends on how large the stolon is.. and as that forms the first week after the potato sprout emerges.. if you don't catch it soon enough, hilling it is a wasted effort.

Tomatillo have already begun to flower.. well this one anyways. It's buddies still need more time to catch up. If this sets fruit.. the seed from it will not be viable as tomatillo are self-incompatible.

The heat + the days of rain.. and now the heat again is causing my snow peas to wind down. No doubt the family will be glad at least some of the peas are no longer on the menu. I managed to add snow peas to pretty much every meal and shared some extras with a friend. I don't bother with freezing snow peas.. they are one of those things that never quite revive, so we just eat them seasonally.
The Alaska shelling peas have been producing for awhile. I am now stopping collecting from them so the rest may have enough time to finish for seed next year. I have another patch of shelling peas that will be ready to start picking soon. I still can't find what strain they are. I did find a quick map I drew and only because of that I know they are a shelling sort. The sugar snap peas are still being devoured by our daughter. I got to try just a few and they are very sweet. I have to fend her off soon so I can get enough to plant next year.
Off I go to collect more fresh composting materials (sigh) and plant more dill. My husband's friend can't seem to get enough of it. I told him to buy some lumber and we'll help him make a raised bed so he can grow his own. It will reseed itself easily and all he has to do is keep it weeded.
Back to work.. always so much to do and just when you think you are close to being done.. there is more.

Unintended Germination

Vermicompost bins have a tendency to encourage seeds of all sorts to sprout.. whether you wanted them to or not. Above are birdhouse gourds that had been exposed to the elements all winter long, in fact they hadn't dried very much at all so I chucked them in the bin. They keep sprouting and I keep ripping them out.

And these would all be tomato volunteers from my evil experiments on tomato transplanting last year. I may plant them in the garden... that is if the rototiller fairies make another garden bed. I can dream...
In vermicompost you have the usual suspects.. nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, trace minerals and the like. What is also in there is various fungus, nitrogen fixing bacteria and their other bacteria buddies, humic acids, enzymes.. and plant hormones. Roughly this is the general cliff note explanation of the hormones.. courtesy of Wikipedia cause my head is killing me to think right now.
Gibberellins- "are plant hormones that regulate growth and influence various developmental processes, including stem elongation, germination, dormancy, flowering, sex expression, enzyme induction, and leaf and fruit senescence"
Auxins- "are a class of plant growth substance and morphogens (often called phytohormone or plant hormone). Auxins have an essential role in coordination of many growth and behavioural processes in the plant life cycle."
Cytokinins- "are a class of plant growth substances (plant hormones) that promote cell division, or cytokinesis, in plant roots and shoots. They are primarily involved in cell growth and differentiation, but also affect apical dominance, axillary bud growth, and leaf senescence."

But wait Anne... they sound like they overlap or do the same thing.. well the answer is sort of and not really. Gibberellins are like a messenger service while Auxins and Cytokinins are like Yin and Yang in that they balance each other out to a degree. Auxins are the reason why roots always grow downwards no matter how the seed is planted... and why plants lean toward the light.
Ugh... let's just say light and darkness effect the photoreceptors in plants which in turn triggers the amounts of the hormones in the plants.
I promise I will explain it but I swear my head is about to explode and forming cohesive sentences trying to explain it is beyond my capabilities right now.. plus no doubt I will end up offering the long version.

More birdhouse gourds.. I am leaving them alone for a little while. They have flower buds forming and in short.. I will let them flower long enough to attract the pollinators and keep them busy until the zucchini catch up. These suckers were nailed by snow as seedlings and it didn't kill them.

Why yes... yes it did rain here for a few days and we did have a wicked chilly cold snap.

I really would love to kidnap the old Russian guy at my husband's work. He knows where to find all of the good mushrooms. I know where to find the morels and puffballs on my Mom's farm.. but out here I am not sure where to go. Chanterelle, Puffballs, morels and porchini are about all I can identify. Granted I do have someone else double check the porchini just in case.
Whenever there is precipitation + a big fluctuation in temperature it seems to trigger many fungus to set out fruit. Mushrooms are the fruiting body of fungus. There is a Mycological Society not far from here.. but their days to go always seem to clash with when I have time open. One day... one day.. it is on my list of things I want to do.
I am off to bed.. tomorrow I will trade some peas, radish, spinach and herbs for a few cans of cheap beer so I can make some slug traps. There was a recent hatch out and I rounded up over 60 of them early this evening.. some were small enough to fit 2 inside this o.

Varroa mite?

Maybe it is the headache making me see things... but is that red dot on the corbicula something to worry about?

If it is a varroa mite there isn't anything I can do about it.. just an odd thought and something I noticed in the picture. Here's to hoping it isn't.

Bumblebees + migraine + bindweed = SNARKY

Pretty... when it isn't in your yard.

Especially when your yard has this many.

While I don't mind the dandelions.. have at it little bumblebees..

They also like bindweed pollen.

This little stinker hit up so many blooms it was astounding. The honeybees are not out today.. they haven't been for the last 3 days. Despite the cold and rain.. the bumblebees are hard at work. Can't have too much bindweed!
Migraines make me a bit crabby. This one in particular is working up to be a whopper. Hammering nails into oak with my forehead would probably be less painful.

Survivalists

I have an odd fascination with some of them. While I get what they are doing, why they are doing it and applaud several of them for their efforts at thinking ahead.. there are a few that make me shake my head or flat out are a bit scary.
I suppose that because seeds have always been a fascination for me that it pointed out what I see as a rather big hole in many of their plans. Many of them think far enough to pack seeds.. and even point out that one should pack non-hybrid seeds in their reserves... but .. but... always there is a but..

THEY OVERLOOK HOW TO STORE PROPERLY OR PROPAGATE STRAINS OF SEED.

Worse yet.. many buy into to that gimmicky pvc "seed bank" of delusional security. That whole thing makes me cringe as so many are feeling this false sense of security to such a degree that they post videos on youtube about their pride of that purchase. Reality is that most all of them couldn't tell you how to even get a plot of dirt prepped for a garden.

So there are a ton of people all looking glassy eyed at this piece of plastic and thinking... "whew! I got that covered.. I am good to go!" Yeah... only if by some freak chance all plant disease and pests as well get eradicated.

There are strains not found in seed catalogs... not sold by seed distribution companies.. they are raised by a few hundred people... or even just one. Most people think there are maybe a hundred or so cultivars of tomatoes.. all they see are the ones in the seed racks or the transplants at the nursery. There are literally thousands.

Now while some crops are easy to sae seeds from.. like beans and peas and often peppers.. others are a challenge. Squash... because C. Pepo is a species with so many different summer squash and a few winter squash with heavy pollen and nectar producing flowers that bees go berserk (read.. cross pollination galore unless you deliberately take steps to prevent it).. or corn which can send out millions of pollen grains for a week which is carried on the wind (again.. something you need to time the bloom of, know isolation distances, or know how to bag them.)

How about those that need to be over wintered to get seeds? Root crops that have good storage ability, often the crops eaten in the winter.. kinda important ones you want to keep going.

Herbs, flowers and especially cover crops get overlooked. Yes... flowers. Here's my point.. pollinators are important. You want them to set up shop so that your garden is productive. Although they do have a range to wander in their foraging pursuits... it isn't nearly as far as the typical person thinks it is. While not every survivalist is going to keep bees... anyone gardening food crops knows the importance of pollinators. Many crops have multiple purposes aside from putting food on the table... learn to save those seeds too. Alfalfa for example... nitrogen fixing plant that also is a feedstock for livestock, blooms attract some bees and other pollinators, helps prevent soil erosion. Clover is another multi tasker.. bee forage, livestock forage, green manure source, nitrogen fixer.. and some of them are edible (tea can be made from it as well the greens can be cooked).

I suppose my gripe is that you can just pick up a bunch of seeds and think you have all of your bases covered. If one is so worried about crops being stolen... hedge your bets and plant an orchard. Variety outside of the box store offerings. Actually grow the plants and save the seeds. Grow the seeds you saved and see how well you have done maintaining the strain. Know how to store the seeds properly. I mean how many survivalists have desiccant on their "must have" list?

A plastic storage bin with seeds in paper bags that someone has written the date they purchased them all over means nothing when it gets invaded by bugs... or worse... moisture.

Another thing.. some seed packets.. the seeds are already several years old. When they put a "sell by" date.. as they legally have to.. all it means is this.. a germination test was conducted, and the seed passed the testing requirements.. the date means nothing more than a window of time (13 months) in which the seed can be sold.

Knowing how to perpetuate a crop might just be a factor they would want to practice. Knowing how to select for traits, avoid genetic bottlenecking, be able to identify and handle disease/pests etc. is something over the last few generations that has fallen on the back burners. It used to be common practice in many households as it was key to survival. (As was diversity of plantings and foraging.)

That's my thoughts on that for the moment.

what a tool- Leatherman

Now this is something similar to what I got my husband over 10 years ago. He has it on him all the time and it gets used almost daily. It is made in the U.S.A. and it is of good, durable construction. It folds up into a handy size and the sheath has belt loops, but it lays well so it isn't obtrusive. It is like the Swiss army knife of tools.. but in my opinion it is better.
You have to realize that was a tad hard for me to admit.. as I had an odd fascination with Swiss army knives. They are just so handy. I had a small one as a kid which I used all of the time at the stables and when we would go mucking about in the woods all day on our horses. I also was prone to losing them and more than a few went through the wash!
The first time I went to Venezuela.. many many years ago, I had 3 with me. My sister lived there for a few years and anyhow she had an older gentleman that tended the yard and a housekeeper who had a teenage son. 1 was for me and the other 2 were for them. They loved 'em.
The second time I went down to visit my sister, she had gotten a message from her friend Iglee who was down in the southern area of Venezuela. Iglee had gotten a grant to document how indigenous peoples used various medicinal plants, and to document plants there in general. The place is now an Eco-camp.. but when I was there it was little more than a native village. No pools.. everyone slept in hammocks (and at night rats that ran down the hammock strings.. I got very little sleep whenever I was in that country) .. no actual running water except a bit of creativity that harnessed a bit of the river.. meals were what you caught in the river or collected in the jungle. It was AWESOME! I'm quite devastated they warped it into what it is now.
Back to the point... the message she sent was that they were low on medical supplies and some of the babies were sick with chicken pox. So the weeks before heading down there I rounded up medical supplies, kids clothes, fabric, threads, buttons, clasps, fishing hooks and lures, nylon threads of various thicknesses, mosquito netting, etc .. and several dozen Swiss Army knives. I had 10 suitcases stuffed like mad.
Getting there was quite the adventure.. but in short I gave the knives to several people in several villages. If you ever go to a 3rd world country in an area that is off the grid... these are very appreciated tools I discovered. During my stay there, while we helped fish, helped bring medications for the little ones, basically chipped in wherever we could... the people were very very kind and often would bring us extra fish or fruits they collected. The avacado there were the size of footballs... ok not quite that big, but 1 avacado was massive compared to the puny things at the store.
They asked me to stay, (even offered to make me my own hut!) and I had planned on returning to spend a few months there.. but my youngest sister had several health crises followed by Venezuela becoming unstable. It wasn't to be... but that is ok because I will remember the place forever as a terrifying, beautiful, unspoiled, magical place on the planet.

Utilitarian tools are a wonderful thing... doesn't matter if you are in the jungle or in the city. If you don't have a Leatherman... I seriously suggest you consider one. They are something built so well that even after a decade plus of almost daily use (aside from having to sharpen the knife a few times) it is still as good as new.