It’s an amazing time of the year when all gardener’s hard work comes to fruition in the the form of food!  I can’t describe how thankful I am that we have an acreage with plentiful enough land to be able to expand our garden year after year.  Keeping up with the weeds, the slugs, and (yay!) the harvest is ever challenging.  We are blessed with good friends and neighbours who have farmed their land for years and so are a wealth of expertise and knowledge of which they are always willing to share.

We’ve been growing a strain of garlic for 3 years running now and with fabulous success.  It originally came from our friends at Gidora’s Garden who live a half hour up the highway from us.  The strain was produced by them and is called Kostyn’s Red Russian.  They grow thousands of garlic plants in addition to multitudes of fruit and vegetables and have chickens as well.  If you would like to know more about them check out their blogsite at http://gidorasgarden.com/ .  They are truly stewards of the land.

Here on our homestead we are constantly working toward being as self-sustaining as possible.  We grow as much food as we can, have a horse for manure for our garden, prepare and preserve our own wholesome foods, and of course run our home-based business.  There is always a plethora of projects for home, garden, and business which need doing and I’ve come to realize that is just the way life is.   When I look around at the beauty and abundance of food growing in our garden, I know we are very lucky to actually have so many projects which need doing!

I love this messy life, where everything and nothing is getting done.  So long as we are always doing things in our garden, our home, and our business which are practical, sustainable, and good for the earth, then hey, it’s all good!

The sun has finally arrived on BC’s West Coast!  Yay!  With all the cloudy damp weather our garden took a beating (more like an eating!) from an outrageous slug population.  Our homestead is in a forest.  We live in harmony with the indigenous Banana slug species because they stay in the forested areas.  They are quite pretty and are yellow or green and can have black spots as well.  The non-indigenous Black slug (from Europe) however is a huge garden pest.  I “hates” them!  They invade with “armies” of ravenous eating machines.  Seriously, I’ve been going out to our food gardens most evenings just before dusk.  I find fifty to a hundred or more most nights.  If it’s been raining double that!  I used to be kind and relocate them, then I started using beer traps figuring they were dying happy.  Sorry, it’s war now.  Now I have my “massacre” tool.  A long handled weeder with a blade.  I figure “at least it’s quick”!

I was forced to plant and replant squash and beans several times and finally the plants are getting big enough that they will likely (I remain cautiously optimistic) survive.   A friend of mine had a great suggestion which I have implemented happily with wonderful success.  Save your tin cans  and cut off the tops and bottoms.  If your can opener will allow, cut under the ridge so you end up with a jagged edge.  Slugs don’t like crawling over sharp objects.  Place the cans sharp side up over your seedlings.  You’ll need to wear gloves so you don’t cut yourself.  My beans and Basil are working well with the tin can protection.  This website from Vancouver Island has some other great tips: http://www.crd.bc.ca/gardening/slugs.htm.

Now,  if I can just get the cat to stop digging and knocking the tins over…