Applegater
Winter 2012 5
DIRTY FINGERNAILS AND ALL
Discovering cup gardening
BY SIOUx ROGERS
“Not again,” I whimpered as I glared
in horror at the remains of the third
replanting of my spring plants. I thought
I had planted broccoli, cabbage, brussels
sprout, kale, and…
Them dang small, slimy brown slugs
knew I did and munched them down to
remnants of old lace. “Dang” is a political
garden statement for full-out slug warfare.
I mean as in no fooling around. I had heard
I could or should put copper wire around
all my raised beds to keep slugs out. Wrong!
W
onder if I ate slugs, would I be
long and slim like a snake?
First, I cannot afford to do that and second,
they drop out of the sky at night and bypass
the copper barrier. So obviously that will
not work.
Next plan: beer! I heard that one
before. It is supposed to work. Problem
with that was I did not have enough beer
to share with the slugs and for me to enjoy
while planting. I won. Well, maybe I didn’t
win because the slugs did not seem very
interested in the strategically placed wee
lids full of lager. Wait, I know, broccoli
and beer, yum.
Moving along to the next plan. Place
small planks of wood between vegetable
rows, and in the morning I catch the
sleeping slugs. Perfect plan, but only a few
sleeping slugs are found in the AM and the
vegetables are looking more and more like
antique green lace.
Seems as though everyone has their
own personal formula for “slug sleuthing.”
I’m sure you have all heard the nocturnal
regime of using the flashlight as a spyglass:
handpick the little buggers off and drop
them into soapy water. That does not work
for me because when I go to grab them,
they whoosh out between my fingers and
never make it to the soapy water.
Oh, here is a great one for all you
reptilian lovers. Snakes love slugs, their
favorite. So don’t kill the snakes. Wonder
if I ate slugs, would I be long and slim like
a snake?
Don’t forget that “wonderful” fine
powder, diatomaceous earth. How stupid
is that? It becomes useless when it dissolves
into the dirt every time you water.
Here are a few other suggestions:
Coffee. “New research has found
caffeine to be very effective at dispatching
slugs.” (http://www.gardensalive.com/
article.asp?ai=627) I am always suspicious
of the phrase “new research.” Anyhow,
this suggestion did not say if the slugs like
cream and sugar with their coffee. Actually,
putting your spent coffee grounds around
the base of each plant annoys those buggers
so much that they drop dead of frustration.
However, this “solution” means you can’t
touch the soil or the coffee grounds will
become one with the earth.
Oh, here is a really good idea.
“Surround your plants with a protective
barrier of hair. The slugs will get all tangled
up in it and strangle, and the hair will
eventually add plant-feeding nitrogen to
the soil.” (http://www.gardensalive.com/
article.asp?ai=627)
I just knew my super tiny slugs would
be escape artists. From the same website
were a few other suggestions, some of
which I have tried, such as citrus peels
as slug traps (some larger creature ate
the peels), white vinegar spray (I burned
the plants and they hated me), lightning
bugs (hellooooo, not everyone lives in
the Midwest), ducks (that is a hoot—my
ducks would eat more baby vegetables
than a truckload of slugs. So I think not
on ducks.). Toads—good idea but I haven’t
seen toads being sold at the supermarket.
Humph. Lastly, there was a suggestion for
P
roblem with that was I did not
have enough beer to share…
“rove beetles.” All is not so perfect here,
either. Doing a little detective work, I
found out that while these rove beetles are
great on the cleanup crew, they have chosen
earthworms as their favorite food. So, not!
Back at the drawing table I re-
examined all the options, short of
cementing the raised garden beds and
planting gnomes. Those tiny garden
slugs dine on new baby vegetable leaves,
they hide in the soil, usually sleep during
the day, party at night and are excellent
climbers. With all of this knowledge I
smartly banded each and every new little
stalk with tinfoil. Nope, did not work!
So now where are we? The aha
moment arrived: my “Cup Garden.” After
trying all of the above unsuccessfully, it was
a clear decision that a new plan of attack
was needed. Finally, a brain explosion of
smarts. I had Honey get several dozen ten-
ounce clear or semi-opaque plastic cups.
(Well, of course I bought them from the
Dollar store.) I looked at all the surviving
plants, even the semi-munched ones, and
calculated what I had growing and what
was gone. Next step was to keep the cups
stacked together in order to keep them
sturdy for upcoming cup surgery: razor-
cutting the bottom off every cup. Okay,
Honey did the surgery for me.
Then I took one cup at a time and
slipped the cutoff end over the top of the
Sioux Rogers—And the beet goes on.
small plants and “screwed” it into the soft
ground. I think I tried it the other way, bind the stalks— and before the sun started
putting the original mouth opening in first, to disintegrate the plastic.
After harvest, I went back through
but somehow that did not work as well. I
believe the razored-off edge cut through the the garden in search of any missed
soil easier. That being done, I did put out disintegrating plastic. You do not want
some more lids with beer and a few boards that mulching in your garden—at least I
here and there, but did not really catch too don’t. Any questions?
Dirty Fingernails and All
many of the brown/black slippery things in
Sioux Rogers
the morning. Mind you, the slugs were still
541-846-7736
in attack mode, but with the cups I could
mumearth@dishmail.net
see and catch them before their midnight
snacking. So for three nights in a row, I
“Unemployment is capitalism’s way of
went out to the garden with a flashlight
and small clippers. I could see and snip getting you to plant a garden.”
—Orson Scott Card
those little buggers crawling up and down
the cups. Get
the idea of the
clear cup?
That is
it. The plants
grew better
than I have
ever had them
grow, probably
because they
did not have so
many setbacks.
My br ussels
s p ro u t s g re w
over five feet tall.
While the plants
were still young I
could easily feed
them a cup full
of whatever was
the soup du jour
and it would go
right down to
their little roots,
n o s p re a d i n g
into the outer
soil.
The plants
grew so large
that I removed
Top photo: Red cabbage plants when clear plastic cups were first placed
the cups when
over them for slug control. Bottom photo: The same red cabbage after
they started to
several weeks of successful cup gardening.
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