4 News Today I have a whole lot of bits and pieces, nothing profound, I’m afraid! Before I start, perhaps I’d better clear my conscience by telling you that you may grow dahlias in a semi-shaded location. Last week I stated firmly that dahlias need full sun (and this has certainly worked better in our garden) but the tag on a cactus dahlia that “himself” couldn’t ® resist, reads “May be grown in full sun or partial shade.” So, please, take it from there! I wondered what was nibbling off the Chinese cabbages, mowing down the summer tumips, cutting off whole leaves of the spinach, eating the scarlet runner and pole beans entirely, and making me so miserable I spent most of each day — sniveling, disgustingly wiping my nose on my shirt sleeve. It tummed out to be, not vegeta- tion-eating dinosaurs, as I had thought, but dirty, rotten common slugs, the kind that are reasonably small, with the appetite of a horse and live just under the surface of ® the soil. These are the little dears that burrow holes in your potatoes, rasp _the skin of cukes. and marrows, " invade tomatoes, never appear dur- ing the day, but pig out each night on whatever is nearest. Just the kind of pest that gardeners, with- out exception, LOATHE! ‘If we can just gef ahead of some enferprising robin, maybe this week we will actually harvest a ripe strawberry’ I put out my favorite slug bait, © the liquid Deadline, carefully — located deep in emptied soup tins SO aS not to sicken any pets, but this was an absolute failure. No slugs came visiting. : In the end I begged a bottle of beer from “himself,” (who makes a fine brew) and distributed it around the vegetable plots in shal- low plastic containers, about half an inch in each, The next moring was horrible. Some dishes had as many as 20 slugs lying unconscious in the beer. A drunken lot these slugs, and I was more than happy to see the end of them. There will be lots more I’m sure, and I am using the same method for catching them, but this time I'll be tilting an angled shingle (or similar) over each dish to keep the rain out. Diluted beer doesn’t seem to work nearly as well as whole! Ihave already sprayed the hon- eysuckle once with dish soap and water to rid the vines of aphids, but, obviously, I didn’t get them all the first time, and they are back again in their millions. That is an important job for tomorrow, although hopeless if it rains. Aphids are one of our most annoy- ing and damaging pests. They may be small, but they come in such numbers, and suck plant juices so enthusiastically they really are a dangerous bunch, but either a sharp spray with the hose nozzle, Or a Spraying with soap and water usually cuts them down to size. I am amused and delighted to see baby squash plants appearing in some mighty strange places. I found one today sticking his head up in a hanging basket of begonias, and another happily growing in the bed reserved for the tomatoes. This always says to me, “Hey, everybody, it’s time to plant out your squashes!” Don’t be too hasty though, squashes are notori- ously tender. RECYCLE TheReview La SS BALLOONS! BALLOONS! BALLOONS! NASCAR APPROVED « et , ONLY - 20- en LIMIT 2 CASES BALLOONS!| te rae Tage LIMIT 2 CASES BALLOONS! “himself” and I spent some time today preparing places for both zucchinis and tomatoes, but have, so far, held off planting. That darned wind still seems cold to me. Today I carted'a lot of wonder- ful compost out to a very bad bed which gets a lot of full sun, contains dreadful clay soil, and never seems to get enough water. In three carefully prepared holes I planted three French globe arti- chokes, who may or may not like their new home. There will be a lot of competition from tree roots and other struggling perennials, neigh- boring dogs, cats, and kids, and property owners who may at times neglect them in favor of things like Squashes, onions and tomatoes. Me? Surely not! This is May 22nd and we have one strawberry that is quite a decent shade of red but only on one side. Now if we can just get ahead of some enterprising robin, maybe this week we will actually harvest a ripe strawberry. As your shrubs finish flowering any pruning you feel necessary may be done. Things such as broom almost certainly should be trimmed back to remove dead flowers; winter flowering heathers should be very sparingly sheared; lilac bushes should have dead heads removed; tulips and daffo- dils should have seed pods cut off, leaving the untidy foliage to die back before pulling it up and sending it to the compost pile. When you have finished pruning you might consider applying some fertilizer. Most of your shrubs will be already preparing to set flowers for next year and encouragement now almost certainly guarantees a fine display next spring. One last request. Please shade all your bedding plants after dig- ging them into their permanent locations. They suffer shock, and could die from full exposure to noonday heat, so spread newspa- TheReview Wednesday, May 30,1990 — All i-Slugs ignore the poison but like the beer per, dried grass, just something over them to cut off those burning rays. Do keep new transplants well watered for that important first week while they are getting firmly rooted, and better able to look after themselves. = Some people take months to sell Their house ... 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