Avant Gardening with Sturtz & Copeland

Snails and slugs have come out in force with all the rain. They’ll carve large raggedy holes in your plants and can consume entire seedlings in a night. There are many strategies to control them. Small bowls of beer,especially yellow bowls, will entice an drown them. Planks placed throughout the garden will give them a place to hide. In the morning flip them over and use an old spatula to scrape them off the bottom of the plank and into the trash. There are baits such as Sluggo, which are effective but not toxic to people or animals. But one of the best defenses against slugs and snails are ducks. They are merciless in their pursuit of the little buggers and they’re highly entertaining as well.

There’s nothing more frustrating to walk out the door to find a deer destroying your garden handiwork. Some deer repellants, such as Bobex, work quite well but repeated applications can be expensive. The most basic strategy is planting plants that deer won’t eat.
A complementary use of fences and barriers can prevent deer damage, Putting a curve in the fence seems to puzzle the animals, so that even if they can jump the fence they usually won’t. Another trick is to leave some slack at the top of the fence, so that it moves in the breeze-deer don’t like the motion and won’t jump the fence. The most affordable way to protect plants is with black nylon netting.
The simplest compromise is to plant deer-inedible plants on the fringes of your property and leave the more edible plants to more defensible areas near the house. Deer do have good memories and can even pass their knowledge of repellant-protected plants to their offspring.

Manure Tea
One of the easiest and most efficacious ways to fertilize your plants is with manure and/or compost tea. Purchase an inexpensive plastic trashcan and fill it with water. Take an old pillowcase and fill it with one shovelful of manure, one shovelfull of good-quality compost and a tablespoon or two of Epsom salts. Tie off the open end of the pillowcase, toss it into the water and let it steep for a few days. Once the water has turned a medium brown color, take a saucepan and pour it all over your plants, leaves and all.
Pouring it on the leaves takes advantage of what’s called foliar feeding, in which plants absorb fertilizer through pores in the leaves. It’s most effective when done first thing in the morning, when a higher percentage of the pores are open.
You’ll get terrific growth with manure tea because essential nutrients reach all parts of the plant quickly, without going through the roots.