Sacrificial plantings

The last week has been all about sacrificial planting. 

Not in the true sense of the term but sacrificial in my mind nonetheless.

That's how long it's taken to work out what to do about it. 

And in the meantime, the cosmos and salvia seedlings were being devoured by the earwigs and slugs at a rapid rate.

Just as we thought, they also reside in the old posts of the post and rail fence.

Bill gave one of them a quick spray of surface spray and all hell broke loose!

But thankfully we have finally found a solution ( and no killing involved!)

We've tried beer traps....(some success).

Olive oil with a splash of fish sauce in container with hole in top....(no success).

Plastic tubing set amongst plants to hide in during the day....(nope).

Sand sprinkled around seedlings...(nope).

Me going out late at night with my strap on torch and spray....( too tired sometimes).

It's all about protection.

It's called the plastic container covered in flyscreen mesh method and it has worked a treat! 

As the seedlings get taller I'll just remove the mesh and hopefully the seedlings will be stronger to ward off attack.

Thanks to Helen and Jamesy and Colleen for plastic drink bottles.

And Farmer Bill for construction ( a bit of occupational therapy after his hernia operation last Friday).

And then in desperation I've used my Chobani yoghurt flower gathering containers. 

And Dad's rusty tin cylinders covered in shade cloth when we ran out of old flyscreen mesh.

We've renamed the garden...... The Garden of Chobani.

This is what happens without a cover.....

And with a cover....

The slugs have still been slurping on the beer traps but I'm going to remove them now that this little guy/gal has been spotted ( frightened the living daylights out of me I might add and probably still will whenever I see him).

I'm still mindful of trying to keep a happy balance in the slug/ insect population. I know how important it is to have beneficial insects too. In fact earwigs even come into that category. I just can't bring myself to see them that way though right now.

I had barely put this beer trap down last night when a slug came out of nowhere and started to climb in.

Amy and Helen's collection of plant goodness to replace all the eaten seedlings. Bless them.

Jamesy's tomato seeds saved on a bit of absorbent paper from a tomato last season. Paper and all went in to the seed raising mix.

Felt like I was doing what Pa would do. He'd be very impressed I think.

Around the garden path at Frogpond Farm.

Iris time.

The cherry tree, Scilla starting to come into flower ( new to me), lupins and the fresh green mounds of Munstead lavender.

Cherokee Rose out in bloom. 

I was amazed to find the missing hellebore under the apple tree. We thought it had disappeared completely. I relocated it to the back of the house with the others. I don't remember so much blossom on the old apple tree before.

Farmer Bill is willing that new grass to grow.

So far the pots on the sticks have kept the parrots from eating the seed.

My search for used plastic bottles to use as covers led us to the tip shop. Not a plastic bottle to be seen but two gorgeous old rusty shovels ( spades?) for $5 each.

Bill constructed a couple of frames out of gathered branches from under the trees. 

They'll be perfect for the tomato stems to be attached to as they grow. 

Helen planted tomatoes, zucchini, capsicum and her Dad's pumpkin seeds in the vegie garden at the weekend. 

Oh dear. Message from Meredith to say there's a serious tap leak in the bottom paddock. Bill has just walked past with his shovel and spade ( or is that the same thing???) Mmmmm, it requires digging to find the leak. Might just turn the water off for now. 

Our precious kidlets.

Some farmshop jars this week.

Rose talk.

The first serious bloomer of Spring.

It's an old tea rose introduced in its climbing form in 1858 in U.K.

It is sometimes referred to as the Magnolia Rose.

It climbs over our archway at the end of the lavender walk and is covered in buds as we speak. It has the most delicious scent.

I picked these blooms for my farmshop this morning and they were gone in five minutes. Have since picked another little posy and just found that they have been sold too.

In past years the blooms are eaten by earwigs as soon as they come out.....now we know that they reside in the posts that form the archway. Easy pickings for them. We're onto that now though.

Back to planting now.

Yes, I know I don't scatter well, but I found these in the potting shed and scattered  like there was no tomorrow...... all over the place. In fact the wind just whooshed them out of my hand before I had time to even think about it. They'll probably end up in Bill's lawn! 

The magpies are all squarking out there. 

I think they're saying....so where's the 15mm of rain we're supposed to be having? So far for us....zero.

Enjoy the weekend everyone. Hope you got/get some rain in this batch. 

PS There really are sacrificial plants. Nasturtiums are one such plant that springs to mind. It's supposed to attract the pests that would otherwise be eating your prized vegies. I'm onto that too. So far not an earwig in cooee of the nasturtiums!!!!