Slug Battle - Round 2

I did a little research and apparently slugs to not like sand. It will cut their underside and kill them. So, Quincie and I gathered a small bucket of sand at the beach. My precious plants are now protected with sand fortresses.

Poison Dart Frogs

This one is for Linda, the frog lover!

Carl was at a home in Manoa last week and saw this cool frog and several of its friends. He said they were so fast it was hard to snap a photo.

Here is the Wikipedia article about it.

I cannot bear it

I finished The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte a few days ago. It is a wonderful book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is the sort of novel I want to write. The characters are real, and the story is interesting, yet believable. I love the language of this book, especially the expressive way the characters speak to each other.

I picked up a new pet phrase, "I cannot bear it". It sounds so much more dignified and dramatic than, "this sucks" or "I can't take it anymore". This phrase can be employed in all sorts of situations. ie. "I cannot bear it if on my daily visit to my humble lettuce patch I should discover another tender plant has been devoured by those ruinous slugs!"

I enjoyed this story so much I was sad to reach the end. That was the last unread Bronte sister book on my list. I spent a couple days looking for my next book. Nothing seemed right. After reading something so delightful I could not bear the thought of a silly, modern novel, or a serious instructional book. I decided to try something different. I selected a book of classic poetry. The experience has been wonderful.

It is a short collection of poems from some of the most well known poets of the romantic age. Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, etc. Listening to it has been very enjoyable. The narrators voice really helps bring them to life. I have gone to the internet to look up and read with my eyes some of my favorites and to learn more about the lives of the poets. Fascinating.

TO MY SISTER

William Wordsworth

          IT is the first mild day of March:
      Each minute sweeter than before
      The redbreast sings from the tall larch
      That stands beside our door.

      There is a blessing in the air,
      Which seems a sense of joy to yield
      To the bare trees, and mountains bare,
      And grass in the green field.

      My sister! ('tis a wish of mine)
      Now that our morning meal is done,                      
      Make haste, your morning task resign;
      Come forth and feel the sun.

      Edward will come with you;--and, pray,
      Put on with speed your woodland dress;
      And bring no book: for this one day
      We'll give to idleness.

      No joyless forms shall regulate
      Our living calendar:
      We from to-day, my Friend, will date
      The opening of the year.                                

      Love, now a universal birth,
      From heart to heart is stealing,
      From earth to man, from man to earth:
      --It is the hour of feeling.

      One moment now may give us more
      Than years of toiling reason:
      Our minds shall drink at every pore
      The spirit of the season.

      Some silent laws our hearts will make,
      Which they shall long obey:                             
      We for the year to come may take
      Our temper from to-day.

      And from the blessed power that rolls
      About, below, above,
      We'll frame the measure of our souls:
      They shall be tuned to love.

      Then come, my Sister! come, I pray,
      With speed put on your woodland dress;
      And bring no book: for this one day
      We'll give to idleness.                                 
                                              

Gardening Again

My first experiment in gardening in Paradise was semi successful. Nearly everything sprouted, and we actually harvested some tomatos and cucumbers. The basil from a year ago is still alive and kicking. After the slugs ate my cucumber plants, and the cilantro never made it past 4 true leaves, I gave up. For a while. That was about 5 months ago. Last week I started gardening again. I just can't resist. There is something very satisfying about growing food.

Produce shipped from the mainland is ridiculously expensive and rather poor quality. The week boat ride drives up the cost, and doesn't do much for freshness. We eat a lot of fresh vegetables. Quincie and Carl especially love them. I love to cook with cilantro and in Utah it grew like a weed. It was easier to grow cilantro than grass in my front yard. It's pretty awesome when you mow the lawn and it smells like salsa.

It is a whole new ball game to garden in Hawaii. I thought it would be easy. It is exactly the opposite of the Utah climate. It is humid, warm, nearly always sunny. Sounds perfect! Gone were the days of freezing June nights and scorching August days! You can dig with a plastic shovel, rather than a jack hammer. Those points are as great as they sound, but they come at a cost. Living in Paradise is never free!

First off, there are slugs. They are big, fat, and very, very hungry. They ate an entire bed of fully mature cucumber plants in a few days. These plants were loaded with cucumbers, in various stages of growth. I thought all those prickly, itchy, fuzzy things on the stems and leaves were supposed to keep critters like slugs off. Guess not. By the time I figured out what was going on, they were dead. Such a sad, and useless death. Salt is the prescribed revenge. Apparently it makes them dissolve, just like water and the Wicked Witch.

Second, there is the soil. It is salty, and on our part of the island, mostly red dirt, which is full of too much iron. No need to eat red meat, just eat some home grown tomatoes to get your iron. If you can get them to grow. I have since learned to add a TON of potting soil to the dirt if you want to have much success. Growing in a container, filled with potting soil, is also a good idea. You can move it around, and out of the way of horrid things such as slugs.

Third, the temperature. Some things just don't grow right when it is ALWAYS between 70 - 80 degrees. Corn doesn't get too sweet if you don't break 90 for at least a week. Lettuce does so much better if the nights drop below 65. Tomatoes, also like the heat to ripen. I found that growing hybrid varieties that were specifically developed for Hawaii makes a big difference.

Fourth, the jungle. The things that grow well here, really, really grow well here. I am not kidding. In the year we have lived in this house a TREE has grown from nothing, to 7 or 8 feet tall. I did not plant this tree. Some other tree produced a seed that happened to blow into my yard, and it happened to sprout and grown. The trunk doesn't have much of a diameter, but it is 7 or 8 feet tall! In Utah that would be a miracle. Here, it is annoying, weed, that much be chopped down rather than pulled or whacked with a weed whacker.

I am now the happy gardener of cocktail tomatoes, Manoa lettuce, cucumbers, and some cilantro. The cilantro doesn't look so good, but I love it so much I am willing to keep trying until I achieve success. I have planted some mini bell pepper seeds, but no sprouts yet. Hopefully in a few weeks we will be eating home grown veggies again. Wish me luck with the slugs!