Gardening New solution without using chemicals Today we have a wonderful sug- gestion on how to control the slug population without using chemi- cals, from a woman who doesn’t want to be identified. She lays, between the rows in her vegetable garden, lengths of 2 X 4s, or 4 X 4s, or any flat surfaced lumber. Each morning she goes out with a pail of hot water, turns over the various boards and brushes the accumu- lated slugs off into the water. She says she must have killed between five and seven HUNDRED slugs this spring, and that they had done very little damage before she trapped and killed them. Needless to say I was impressed! Yesterday I searched out a lot of pieces of wood and placed them in strategic positions close to things such as beans and squash. This morning I half-filled an ice-cream carton with hot water and, with murder in mind, went out to look for slugs. I was sort of disappointed to find only a few in residence under the boards but the ground was pretty dry (making it more diffi- cult for these brutes to move around). I have watered thoroughly today and the soil will be damp over- night, so tomorrow I may get lucky and catch my limit! I’m sure all of us are delighted to hear of a way to catch slugs without using poisons, thank you, dear Mrs. X! return, and I am delighted she did. She asked for a list of vegetables that needed lime to make them grow well. Going at it alphabetically we can start with asparagus, kidney or snap beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, parsnips, cauli- flower, celery and celeriac (will tolerate acid conditions in well- cultivated fertile soil), sweet com, cucumbers, egg plants, kale, kohl- tabi, leeks, lettuce, onions (but will tolerate acid conditions in a well-fertilized soil), parsley, peas, radishes, spinach, squash, pump- kins, tomatoes need only a scatter- ing of lime (watered in) on top of the soil to prevent blossom-end tot, and we finally end up with Swede turnips. I try always to use Dolomite lime since it contains magnesium, and it is far longer lasting in the soil. You don’t need vast amounts, Just a thin scattering should do the trick. A friend of mine called’ to ask about some bearded iris that had for many years flowered in her garden. She maintained the iris had changed color over the years, but her husband swore they had remained exactly the same. The last thing I want to do is get involved in a family arguement but to tell the truth it is quite possible for iris (and most other things) to change color over the years. (This is where sex rears its lovely head). Cross-pollination takes place; perhaps yellow iris are fertilized with pollen from reddish brown ones, the resulting tubers will Catry genes of both parents, so we will end up with one yellow one, one reddish-brown one and two orange ones. Mix red and yellow and you'll end up with orange. Over a period of years, as the old iris tubers lose their vigor and new tubers take over the bed, the colors are bound to change, unless, of course, you only have iris of one color. Even then you can’t really trust the bees . . . there is no knowing just where they may have been picking up pollen. Anyway you -had the right idea, Audrey! Sorry, Bob! She asked for one thing in reel at recent Firemen Games at the North Saanich McTavish Road firehall is one of the over 20 participants. Stereo stolen Cassette tapes, stereo speakers, an expensive cassette deck and a cassette tape carrying case were stolen from a Mazda pick-up truck left in the Trafalgar Square shopp- ing centre parking lot in Bren- twood Bay overnight June 12-13, Central Saanich police said. The deck is described as a JVC digital cassette deck valued at $350. The other items are worth about $900, police said. The truck’s doors were left ajar following the break-in. RUNNING WITH A hose oo* BOGWl! First Mountain Trip ROYAL CANADIAN ON THE VIEW OF THE MT. Newton Valley is in the background as a horse just about manages to escape being Caught in the camera lens. 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