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Ariel's avatar

Amazing tips. Thank you!

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Mark Ridsdill Smith's avatar

You are most welcome Ariel.

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gardening_kristi's avatar

Great advice for everyone, here. Slugs are a problem for me as well. I will need to be determined this year.

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Mark Ridsdill Smith's avatar

Thank you for your kind comment! Slugs seem to get everywhere, don't they? Do you have the Spanish type in your neck of the woods? They are so large and muscular I once distinctly heard one nibbling on one of my green tomatoes!

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gardening_kristi's avatar

The biggest slug we have here are Leopard Slugs, which can grow quite large, longer than my foot. 😬 In my lettuces and cabbages, I have smaller, gray ones. Last season they were so bad that I pulled 18 of those gray ones out of a single Napa Cabbage. I'm going to have to be ruthless this year with hunting them, which I don't like to do. I always hope that the garden snakes and maybe some of the birds will help, but I think I'd need an army of snakes at this point. The snakes are thinner than many of the slugs!

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Angie Dawn's avatar

Thanks for another interesting post, Mark. My window ledges and dining table are now completely overrun with young seedlings and grow lights :-)

Do you have trouble with sparrows eating the leaves of your pea plants? They seem to love mine, and can completely strip a plant of leaves overnight, so I always have to grow them under a vegetable cage.

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Mark Ridsdill Smith's avatar

Sparrows! They are known as the naughty nibblers in our home (the blackbirds are the scurrilous scufflers) - and, yes, they do love nibbling our peas! Last year I observed that the pretty pea sticks I was using also proved to be very convenient perches for them to sit on and nibble away. So far I've been lucky and I haven't had to resort to netting but the pea variety I've been growing the last few years is so tall this would be quite tricky. I don't really have another solution, unfortunately. My observation is that they are worse some years than others - is this what you have found, too?

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Angie Dawn's avatar

The peas I grow are dwarf varieties, so it is quite easy for me to have a couple of pots under a vegetable cage to keep them off. But I would like to grow more, including possibly a taller variety.

We have a large population of house sparrows that live in a dense conifer hedge. In previous years it was like they suddenly discovered the pea plants, and the whole flock descended on them and stripped every leaf off in the course of a few hours.

The vegetable cage does work perfectly, but it would not be easy with a tall variety, and of course it does make it a bit more of an effort to harvest the peas!

We have lots of blackbirds too - scurrilous scufflers sounds about right!

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Mark Ridsdill Smith's avatar

Yes, it's funny how edible plants can sit under birds noses for years without them noticing and then they suddenly discover them. Well funny is one word for it - but also I imagine quite distressing if your peas get stripped like yours did. We have loads of pigeons near me and so far (touch wood) they seem oblivious of my kale. But last year they found my raspberries and destroyed pretty much the whole lot. Blast them!

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Angie Dawn's avatar

Ha - yes we also have lots of pigeons in our garden. They like my Swiss chard, but usually just nibble a few leaves so there is plenty left for us. Again I use fruit cages and nets when the raspberries. strawberries and blueberries begin to ripen.

But we love our birds, and put food out for them. If only we could teach them which food is for them and which is for us.......

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