What to do with your old jars, snails and slugs

(A long, thin Bavarian Mustard jar of snails and slugs next to the head of the rusted metal spike - at bottom left - under which those marauding molluscs have been sepulchered. NB mature corn base and roots in the background)

I was thinking about the story Rick told me in December about nutrient deficiency and soil, and corn and how the American Indians used to put a dead fish under the site of a corn plant, which would then feed on the rotted fish. My thought was to think of what the obvious analogue of a dead fish was that I had to hand - the obvious thing is snails...

And to think that Ive spent a year catching snails, and dashing them on the concrete for the birds to eat...Well enough of that. What a waste!

The obvious thing is then to have a small snail sized stick? (metal rod? cork?) and put it in each pot, and consider the space underneath it as a sort of 'snail repository' or 'snail sepulchre' and when one catches a snail, put it under the stick/cork vel aliud, and let it decompose under one inch or so of dirt. 

(Or perhaps 2 inches; I will have to think it through and experiment with that is the minimum length not to have the birds/flies engaging the soil for the putrescent snails, if this is indeed a problem). 

The point of the set rod/cork is that roots etc can grow around it, and it can be removed and replaced without causing massive structural/root damage. 

Another benefit of this is that one is utilizing a species (snails) which are mostly invading ones, and competitors for produce in the garden against humans, to enrich the garden.

I have never seen this recommended in a gardening book, so I thought Id write it up. If anyone has see it recommended, and details on best technique, let me know. 

Anyway, I thought this through in mid December 2014, and got a good chance to try it with the Melbourne rains of 13th Jan. I had put a ~5 inch iron stake I found on a deserted road out near the best of the corn plants about a week ago. On Jan 13th, when we had about 15mm of rain throughout the day, I went out with the most useless mustard jar I had because of its long thin shape, and used it to collect about 15 snails & slugs. I put some water in the jar, sealed the lid and left it overnight. On returning to it the morning after, the molluscs were all dead (I tapped them on the head as they tried to get out the jar as I was collecting). I was quite pleased about that; better a quick dead.

I then took out the spike, and put 4-5 snails in it down about 1 inch; and put 4 under a rock under the tomatoes, and another 4-5 or so under another tomato plant that is quite young (about a foot) in development. You can see the jar, and the head of the spike in the photo.

It was very satisfying to get the molluscs in light rain. Applying them was grotesque, but knowing that you will so use them as fertiliser makes catching them all the more satisfying. Not only are competitors - the kale-eating snails - dead, but they are also working for me now as fertiliser.

We will see how long the putrefaction and feeding to the plants takes, and whether I've buried them deeply enough. I suspect flies and bird and arthropods might come and dig them out. If I was going to do it again, I would use a thicker stake - perhaps 1 inch diameter, rather than 1.5cm which was the stake, because a large snail is more like 1 inch in diameter, not 1.5cm. I suppose I can tinker with the best form as I go along. 

To be continued...

Aphid Attacks

This is part one of several posts about aphid infestation eating kale plants.

I had several pots containing several kale plants in early 2014. Mostly Melbourne green kale, but some Toscana too. The toscana variety I have found to sprout well and grow tallish initially (to 4-6inches), but is irresistable to bugs, so I have more or less left it as a sacrificial plant for the grubs, while everything else in the same pot flourishes (especially the Mustards).

Recently (summer 2013-2014) we have had an infestation here of two particular pests -  cabbage moths and horrible horrible grey aphids.



Grey aphids - pictured - are so horrible. They sit on the new growth of the plant, sucking out the sap and slowly draining the energy and life from the plant, barely moving at all as they do so, in clusters that grow and grow. They love brassicas. When you crush them between your fingers, they have a horrible light-acrid insectish smell.

I am surprised we dont use them as a metaphor for the growth of bureaucracy.

Horrible.

Up till now my idea of pest control was to plant something else, overload planting (putting about a dozen things in one pot, instead of the orthodox advice about one plant per squatre foot or whatever), and killing snails, slugs and cabbage moths manually.

(I will write something on fast ways to kill cabbage moths at some point)

So I wanted to kill the grey aphids and set up a little experiment. Of the kale buckets, there are the following:

Bucket 1: two large 2ft kales, both post-seed (kales are biennials you might know, these planted in april 2013. So still flourishing). Badly infested with G-A.
Bucket 2: 1 large 1.5 ft kale and three smaller 6inch ones still growing but clipped back for salads regularly. No serious G-A.
Bucket 3: one 1ft kale, very healthy, and a few smaller ones in development. Quite bad G-A.
Bucket 4: three very large (3ft) kales, really flourishing. Of these, two have bad bad G-A infestations, one is moderately infested.
All have bad cabbage moth infections.

So I made the following organic control recipe to spray on them:
2 onions, 2 lengths of leek, several garlic pieces, some cut up solanum nigrum leaves. And some flaxseed oil to make it oily and syruppy. I boiled this into a sort of soupy-sludge, strained it, and then added some portugese piri-piri sauce (this stuff is a portugese version of tobasco sauce basically).

It smells horrible, like italian cooking extruding through a dead person's skin. Horrible.

I sprayed this once it cooled on Bucket 1, Bucket 3 and two of the three kales of bucket 4 on saturday.

It hasnt rained since and the stuff has stuck on.

It sort of worked. The grey aphids seem to have gone quiescent and not died (Id like to think - I have no idea actually what the effect has been); the cabbage moth-caterpillars are still going strong so Ive been picking them off the leaves. BUT - I have noticed that the multitude of white cabbage moths (as many as 6 at a time hovering around previously) now avoid these kales altogether, indeed, they are trying out landing on nearby parsnips rather than landing on the kales. Thats pretty desperate!

That means this syrup is a quasi success as a repulsive-repellant agent, but not as a poison.

I just took the spray and manually sprayed off all the aphids from bucket 3. This means it no longer has so much spray on the leaves either. We will see whether it becomes attractive to the cabbage moths again...

My plan next: depending on how spraying down the aphids on bucket 3 goes, I think I will do the following:

use the jet spray to hose off the aphids as best as possible (probably in another area than the garden).
Wait till they dry.
(next day)  Prepare a fresh solution of bug-killer-spray, this time without the solanum leaves, but adding an organic detergent to dissolve the waxy coating on the aphids and the caterpillars.
Respray & leave.

Then see how long it takes till the pests come back...

A short note on some places to obtain seeds

A comprehensive post based on Australian sites, from Jeremy Coleby Williams of Gardening Australia (ABC) show:

http://jerry-coleby-williams.net/2013/03/04/where-do-i-get-seed-for-that-plant/#more-4229

Ive also bought from:

littlebee*2010 on Ebay, a seller based somewhere in South Australia.


Eden Seeds and Select Organic are the same company, but different lines for different certification processes. Ive found both of them pretty good.

Select Organic
www.selectorganic.com.au/

and the Digger's club -

(named after the parliamentary faction in the English Civil war, a reference no one gets).

http://www.diggers.com.au/about-us/the-club.aspxS

Seeds from all of these have been very good. I have also used other places, and these have been good too; I will ferret around and find them and write it up at some point.

Espalier apples

I was riding back from Flemington via Ascot Vale, and went and had a look at the Essendon Community Garden, which is actually tucked off a backstreet parallel to Ormond Rd Moonee Ponds, the road that runs over the freeway and goes up.

Here's their website -

http://essendoncommunitygardens.jimdo.com/

While I was there, I saw a wonderful espalier Granny Smith apple tree, which I snapped for your delight -

A few things that I have learned about chooks

We have five hens at our current location. That's the limit. No roosters; they are not allowed due to their cock crows. But, let me tell you, a hen celebrating the recent release of an egg can be astonishing loud. They can also be quite demanding. Should you be tardy in supplying their extra portion of scraps and vegetable left-overs, you will hear about it.

On a more serious note, moulting is a somewhat embarrassing affair. We have four ISA Browns and one Sussex. The ISAs look particularly bedraggled during a moult. The Sussex doesn't look so bad; but, she drops feathers everywhere...it looks like there was a pillow fight in the run.

One thing to increase during a moult is protein intake. Feathers are made of such. And, a great source of protein is canned cat or dog food in a pinch. The chooks love it and it can be added to their daily allotment of feed. Just take Fido's bowl and move it into the run (let your canine companion get his or her portion first).

It's not cheap. However, it does mean that the hens recover faster and start laying again earlier.

  Grateful cooperation

This article - link below - deals with 12th century Cistercian concepts of nature in relation to orchard husbandry - and observes how the interrelated monastic gardens and orchards cooperate with one another - it is an early version of an ecological/systems view, with the concept of grateful cooperation and gratitude being at the forefront of how one should view that system.

http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1220&context=theo_fac

Cistercian inspiration for ecological ethics. I looked at the primary text in early 2014, have subsequently misplaced it, and plan to translate some of it soon.

Some quick links

Various ecocatholic issues, very theologically and spiritually comprehensive example of 'joined up thinking'. I wouldnt be delighted with all of their priorities and emphases, but there you go.

catholicecology.blogspot.com.au/

Climate change and academic life -
http://bobbrinkmann.blogspot.com.au/