Slug-hunting
22 April 2022 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI have been out three times tonight, and caught fresh slugs every time -- the biggest was the length of my little finger (and I think I now know what happened to the missing marigold seedling in that pot...) I just don't know where they have been hiding all this time, and where the constant supply is coming from; my nightly raids should have been having *some* impact by now in what is basically a closed ecosystem.
The one good thing is that slug-hunting causes me to be out after dark with my nose down at knee-level, which is the only circumstance in which it appears to be possible to detect scent from my night-flowering phlox -- I was hoping that it would be wafted in deliciously through the open windows, but it remains resolutely at ground level and can only be smelt when your face is almost touching the blooms :-p
The phlox was such a disappointment last year that I didn't bother to save any seed, but it over-wintered vigorously in addition to spreading seed into various neighbouring pots of its own accord, so I still have it. The alyssum also over-wintered and seeded itself in its own pot, and that is just coming into flower now.
I also have buds on the point of bursting on my various self-sown poached-egg plants (I didn't bother planting any of those this year, as I had multiple seedlings as 'weeds'; I should probably plant some seed to ensure a succession, as last year the whole plant got pretty well smashed up by rain and the display was over) and on my California poppies, which having overwintered from last autumn's seed are now ready to flower for the first time. (I did plant some more of those, and have three tiny little double-leafed seedlings.) They should come out orange, assuming they breed true...
The one good thing is that slug-hunting causes me to be out after dark with my nose down at knee-level, which is the only circumstance in which it appears to be possible to detect scent from my night-flowering phlox -- I was hoping that it would be wafted in deliciously through the open windows, but it remains resolutely at ground level and can only be smelt when your face is almost touching the blooms :-p
The phlox was such a disappointment last year that I didn't bother to save any seed, but it over-wintered vigorously in addition to spreading seed into various neighbouring pots of its own accord, so I still have it. The alyssum also over-wintered and seeded itself in its own pot, and that is just coming into flower now.
I also have buds on the point of bursting on my various self-sown poached-egg plants (I didn't bother planting any of those this year, as I had multiple seedlings as 'weeds'; I should probably plant some seed to ensure a succession, as last year the whole plant got pretty well smashed up by rain and the display was over) and on my California poppies, which having overwintered from last autumn's seed are now ready to flower for the first time. (I did plant some more of those, and have three tiny little double-leafed seedlings.) They should come out orange, assuming they breed true...
