Perfect meme and write-up. A+

We are right there with you, Sydney--the coffee, the dog, the hair that we hope nobody sees and sometimes the cell phone to capture the beauty to enjoy when winter comes again.

The beauty and joys of hostas come best with the first cup of coffee. In early am nothing NEEDS to be done no matter how long my to do list is.

I was out at 7:00 straight out of the shower in a bathrobe with my hair in a towel spraying Liquid Fence because I saw a rabbit sitting in my hosta bed. (Don’t worry, I stopped long enough to put on pants!)

Probably a moot point with the frost coming. I can’t possibly cover them all. 😣

You put on pants!!!! lol!

This is the 1st thing me and the dog do every morning--take a walk around the yard. Enjoying the view, listening to the birds, pulling a few weeds and picking up sticks, she sniffs of everything during our tour.. She never has to potty on the yard tours. She races to the door as soon s I leave the bathroom.

My dog responds to the words "Garden Walk" by spinning around in excitement and waiting at the back door. She is even starting to perk up when we say "GW".

I love a good bathrobe garden stroll. Neighbors be damned.

And my cats know the call, "greenhouse!" They love to trot out the door with me and go for frequent visits.

LOL!

@deanna - your comment made me laugh out loud.

You also made me remember I have not been to Menards yet to buy my annual 15 bottles of ammonia to drench my hostas yet. I can only imagine what the employees think when they see someone purchasing that much ammonia. 😬 It works so well though, even if it is a massive undertaking yearly. Still trying to decide if the watering can or the hose attachment works better for slug murder.

Whuuuuuuuut?! Ammonia, slugs, and soil? Have not heard of this, please tell me the details. Right now my main slug control is a shallow bowl of PBR, or Milwaukee's finest, whatever is cheapest. My slugs are clearly Irish immigrants, because they do love the open bar. I have an area by an aralia that has been so slug infested the aralia growth was cut in half last year. This year I've caught probably to 200 slugs at that one spot (keep in mind that given my location, we just started slug season). My heart leaps for joy when I see the baby slugs, less than 1/4" long, heading for the bar, knowing they'll never lay eggs. That one spot alone keeps my butt in the air for a few minutes every morning.

Tell me about the ammonia!

By the way, given that it wasn't too many years ago that most of us tried to kill every insect we saw, and now we are trying to save every insect we can (except for maybe Japanese Beetles), I asked somebody from the botanical garden if one day I would regret killing slugs. She said no regrets, kill away. I have many many slugs in the woods around me, but this one garden area is just overloaded. This is from last year, and the dish had been on the ground less than three hours when this photo was taken.

@Deanna - if you drench the soil around your plants with an ammonia/water mixture, it will kill the baby slugs and eggs before they have a chance to damage your plants. I’ve been drenching my hostas for the last 4 years and I barely have any slugs. Beer doesn’t even catch many slugs for me. I guess my slugs are teetotalers. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Supposed to do 9 to 1 mix, hell I just do ten parts water to one part ammonia even a bit stronger if it’s too much mathematical trouble ——. gallon water 1 cup ammonia. Apply as soon as the pips come. Use same method in fall. The idea is you kill slugs so they won’t survive to lay eggs and in spring you do it to kill off anything that happens to hatch. It’s work but, I hope to see the payoff this summer. My plants were inundated with slugs last year.

people then say to use some other control if needed throughout the summer. Maybe drenching that area now will help some, but I have been told once you see them in the spring, it’s too late. Some people spray with the mixture, but then all parts of the plant have to be done, including the backs of leaves. Good luck!

My slugs are always out before the pips. I've been seeing slugs for over a month, and I have several hostas with no pips. will research this more and see if ammonia this spring would help. Thank you!

Sydney, I'm sure my Irish slugs have a distant Boston heritage, so no tee-totalers here! ;-)

I heard a talk by a very influential permaculturist recently. He recommends creating a rock pile or log pile in the garden to provide a home for garter snakes. I guess they are voracious slug predators, and completely harmless.

Martha

I welcome snakes. That's a good idea. I have plenty of both rocks and logs.

My sweet husband said I looked like one of those wooden bent over Grandmothers in the garden yard art. I was in the hosta bed pulling weeds. I have a bunch of weeds coming up because I put the bird feeder near the hosta bed. I won't do that next year. Between the weeds and the brazen squirrels I have learned my lesson.