The pill beetles are the ones decimating the beans!!!!!! Not the slugs!

Yet again this year, the beans have been devoured by something, as soon as they came up.  I've planted dozens of pole bean seeds, yet only maybe 5 are actually growing, and they look not great either.

But anyway, I've been doing slug patrol nightly for the past several nights (soooo many slugs in the yard) and wasn't seeing a ton of slugs on the beans.  But tonight, my suspicions proved correct when I saw that the newest bean to pop out of the ground is absolutely covered by pill beetles!!  They are having such a feast!!  Sighhhhhh.

So, with the latest beans that sprouted inside in paper towels, today I put them into the pink rectangle thing with three rows -- with garden soil inside.  The tray isn't very deep, so I don't know how well this will work, but my plan is to let them grow there until they're a few inches tall with a few leaves on them, then transplant them, because the pill beetles don't seem interested in the older ones, just the newest ones.

Night crawlers a-plenty! Making babies, woo!

Today was very rainy and tonight while doing slug patrol, saw more night crawlers than I've ever seen in the yard!  Soooo cool!  Quite a few happy couples coupled up as well.  

Slugs galore!!!!!!! ~90% neonates, only a few OGs!

I started doing nightly slug patrol a few days ago given the bean issue where something's eating them before they can get established.  Wow, sooooooooooo many slugs!  All those adults I was finding last September must have done their boogie woogie and left a ton of eggs!  The leaf mulch is also surely a big contributor -- I should look into making leaf mold in future, to provide less protection for slugs.

Anyway, sooooo many of them.  All over the grass.  And of course on things like beans, potatoes, kale, broccoli, and green onions.

The AC Chaleur potatoes had spotty "germination", so I planted some fridge sproutlings in the gaps

The AC Chaleur seed potatoes in the south part of the central bed had a big gap in the middle where none appear to have come up, and when I dug around a bit with my hand I didn't see anything coming up.

So, I used some hidden sprouted fridge potatoes from last year's harvest to fill in the gaps.

On the other hand, the Kennebec on the north part of the central bed have all or nearly all come up beautifully.

GA: Carrots round 2 started today -- with peat moss experiment (over top of round 1 which I'm sure was a flop due to hard-top soil)

Even though the burlap was in place right away, I suspect the round 1 carrots at GA are a flop, as the soil is very hard, and I had left the seeds right on top, not dug in at all.

So, today, I loosed up / re-hand-dug the area (surely digging in the round 1 seeds), then spread out dry peat moss, then watered the peat moss, then broadcast seeds, then spread out more dry peat moss over top, then watered it all in, then re-covered with the burlap and finally watered the burlap.  A few days of rain are called for starting tomorrow -- here's hoping this round works!

Bush beans round one started; have been starting more pole beans

Started enough "Pencil Pod" bush beans for 9 square feet by putting them in a bowl of water today.

And, have been starting more pole beans over recent days because my first method of a big bin of vermiculite didn't work well -- most of those beans rotted.  What HAS been working well is after pre-soaking, placing them in smaller things of vermiculite, and covering with a towel for darkness.

GA: Buckwheat coming up; sowed more buckwheat to fill in gaps

The buckwheat is coming up nicely, but quite a few large gaps.  So, to fill them in, I just used the little hand-"rake" to scratch up the soil, scattered seeds, hand-raked over to mix them in, and watered.

First lettuce harvest of the year; chard will be soon; kale are small

The lettuce, which is all in the three grey rectangular planters, have sprung and are looking great!  Took a first harvest today, with falafel.

The chard aren't far behind.

The kale are looking pretty puny still -- the slugs have a clear preference for them over the chard (they share a bed).  I think the kale will get there though.

GA: Rest of the potatoes planted

These are the NE potato bed.  ~4 varieties -- see notebook for general location.

Put into each hole ~1/2 Tbsp az, ~1/2 Tbsp mrp, 1 Tbsp kelp, and 1 Tbsp alfalfa.

GA: Carrots started, under burlap [and four squares under row cover]

To the bed, added sprinkling of az, mrp, and kelp (no alfalfa).

Methodically placed one seed per spaced hole (used the spacer).

Watered it in, then placed burlap (one layer) and watered it all.

One row of four squares I covered the next day with row cover (the heavy stuff) because the burlap wasn't wide enough.

GA: Buckwheat south bed sowed

 Sowed buckwheat all along the south end of the plot -- so that's 3 feet by roughly 21 feet.

Didn't add any amendments at all.  Just loosed the soil, raked it smoothish, scattered the seeds, raked it again, and watered it.

A: Potatoes bed 1 planted

The SE potato bed is planted.

West part is fridge potatoes -- mostly white, some red.  (All standard-size.)  They had grown inches-long "leaves" in the fridge.

East part is three Kennebec (the rest of the Kennebecs are in the backyard), and all of the Cal Whites.

For each, into its planting hole I put between 1/2 and 1 Tbsp each of azomite, mrp, kelp, and yes alfalfa too.

Pole beans for yard soaked in water overnight tonight

Two varieties of pole beans for the yard:

- Scarlet Runner (from package seeds)

- Kentucky Wonder Wax (from package seeds left over from last year)

Cut up the bigger gaga potatoes

^^^

Freezer is almost empty of last year's meals

Not much left at all!  Just a few jars.  Plus several jars of pesto.

Stevia from last year all gone (except for the two small jars of un-inspected)

Alas!  Used up the last of the aphid-inspected stevia today.  Have been having 1/2 tsp per workday (though used to use only 1/4 tsp) in my tea.  I don't think I can stomach using the un-inspected stuff, so will use the store powdered stevia until I get some of my own this year.

Results of carrot experiment = [EDIT: FLOP!!!!! README] success! (and no freezing needed) -- and part b of round 2 carrots started

EDITED ON MAY 20TH 2024:  Actually, this was a total flop -- although they germinated beautifully on the plate, it looks like none have "taken" in the garden.  I've repeated this several times in recent days and so far all a flop.  I won't do this again -- too bad, because they germinate sooooo quickly this way.  Next year it will be burlap method all the way!  Though  maybe I'll try an experiment with doing 48 hours of plate, then when they go into the garden, covering with burlap.... Hmm....  worth a try!

Here was my original note when I wrote this on May 15th:

~~~

Wow!  The carrots I "sowed" on plates which went into baggies indoors 5 days ago germinated!  I'm sure they mostly germinated yesterday even (given the length of several of them already), but I hadn't checked.

The plate that had spent 24 hours in the freezer was about a day behind the plate that never went into the freezer.  I'm convinced that the freezer step serves no purpose and just wastes a day.

Today I put them all into the carrot bed, NOT by carefully transplanting one by one, but by sort of gently dispersing them around (after I re-loosed the soil).

Didn't have enough to cover the whole area, so started more in the same way today, but without the freezing of course.

First basil harvest (/pruning)

A nice harvest with the first pruning of these 18 plants!  Had them on noodles with nutritional yeast and onion top trimmings.

Beets round 2 -- part 2 -- soaked today, will sow indoors tomorrow

(To fill in the remaining gaps.)

Results of experiment with beets round 2: Indoor starts a clear winner

Wow, the beets I started inside 6 days ago have now mostly germinated and popped up a cm or two or three, whereas the beets I started outside 6 days ago and are under row cover are mostly nowhere to be seen.

Today I transplanted the indoor beets.  The ones that had multiple split apart easily, so I split them up.  We'll see how they take.