I have been eagerly awaiting this week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. My favorite yellow photo is one I took two years ago near Amma’s Engineering College in Amritapuri, India. The bright yellow flowers were such a stunning contrast to all the greenery that surrounded it.
Here are some of the other “yellow” photos I’ve taken during the last two years. (Click on the gallery to enlarge the pictures.)
I have been reading a book by an urban farmer that I have been thoroughly enjoying, until last night. Just before I went to bed I read how she killed slugs in the most horrific way I can imagine. This morning I decided to re-read a post I wrote last year… and share it with you. (Be sure to also read the 2016 addendum.)
2015 post
I imagine slugs are a problem for most gardeners, they sure have been for me. It is so discouraging to go to the garden in the morning and see only the stalks left on bean plants and other vegetable seedlings. In the “old” days I used to use powdered slug bait to get rid of them. Later on, I used beer to bait them.
I have become increasingly uncomfortable with killing the slugs. Early this year it seemed I had more than ever; especially in my two worm bins. Believe me, good compost and free food can raise some BIG slugs. During the early part of the summer, I relocated them to other parts of the yard and hoped they didn’t make their way back to my garden. Occasionally, when I found them in the worm bins, I just left them there.
Then one day I decided to see if there was any information on the internet about the relationship between worms and slugs. I was very dismayed to discover that slugs EAT worms! I even found videos that showed that happening.
Eating my vegetable starts was one thing, but getting plump from eating my worms was completely unacceptable. From then on I took the slugs to the bottom of the empty lot behind my house, about 250 feet away from my garden and my worm bins. That area is full of blackberries vines but I pulled up a lot of morning glory plants and made the slugs a soft bed of edibles.
Next year I will make a home for them that is more hospitable, but still far away from things I hold dear.
I will also experiment with other ways to protect my seedlings. For example, I like the gutter planters that my friend Saroja created this year. She didn’t put her seedlings into the garden until the plants were big enough to be of no interest to the slugs.
I am happy that I have found ways to protect my garden and worm bins without killing the slugs. I hope to be even more successful in that venture next year. If you have found peaceful ways to deal with the slugs in your garden, I would love to hear about them!
****
I found the information in the following articles very interesting:
Fascinating Slug Facts
Slimy Summer Invasion
Earthworms protect against slugs
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2016 Addendum: What I have found interesting this is year is that I have not needed to follow through on my 2015 plan. Other than losing two green bean seedlings at the beginning of the season, I have had NO problem with slugs in my garden or yard this year. There have been a few in my worm bins, and they were big and fat before they came into view, but I have just set them free outside of the worm bins. I don’t know where they go but I do know that all of the plants in my yard have been spared!
Just before hitting publish on this current post, I decided to read the article I mentioned above “Earthworms protect against slugs.” It reported about a study that showed that slugs damage 60% less leaves if earthworms are present. I know my yard has more earthworms than ever before so maybe that is the reason I’ve had no problem this year. I don’t know the “why”, but I definitely appreciate the reprieve and hope it continues.
After reading my Song Lyrics Sunday post for this week, a friend sent me an email telling me about Oscar Brown Jr.’s song The Tree and Me. It is beautiful, and I suggest you check it out too.
As I was listening to it, I remembered hearing Nimo Feat sing during the summer of 2015. I was so inspired by his music and even more inspired when I later read about his life and watched his videos. Here is a synopsis from his website:
From an Ivy League education to Wall street to fame and fortune as a MTV Rap star, at some point along Nimo’s journey he realized that we was walking a path of suffering and that the only path to light was through selfless service to others and his own internal purification. For the past 5 and half years Nimo has been serving and working with the underprivileged communities in the Gandhi Ashram in India.
Most recently Nimo has reconnected to his roots of music and is offering this gift of love, peace and oneness through his songs: an offering he calls “Empty Hands Music”.
Nimo chose the title ‘Empty Hands’, because of the profound wisdom we all can gain when we understand this deeper truth: that we arrive on this planet empty handed and we will all soon leave empty handed. So then, how and in what spirit do we want to spend the time in between?
The Empty Hands album can be downloaded for free here.
One of my favorite songs from that album is called Planting Seeds. Listening to it and watching the video still touches me so deeply. Moments ago, as I was finishing this post I watched it for the third time today. My tears are flowing.
PLANTING SEEDS
Written and performed by Nimesh “Nimo” Patel and Daniel Nahmod
Music Produced by Daniel Nahmod
Mixed by Brian Nicholls
Song inspired by original “Planting Seeds” song by Daniel Nahmod, 2006, from his ‘Water’ album
Lyrics
Intro:
I spent a long time runnin
I never knew then, what I know I know now,
That the fruits they always comin’
But you can’t go around just knockin’ them down
It takes a long time to showin’
We plant the seeds then, and we look at them now,
But the roots are always growin’
No matter if I’m there or never around…
Chorus:
Whatever grows will grow,
Whatever dies will die
Whatever works will work
Whatever flies will fly,
Whatever fails will fail|
What’s meant to soar will soar,
I am planting seeds nothing more
Verse 1:
Its like your whole life you’ve been training for this moment
And when the time comes you just disown it,
Meaning you just surrender don’t control it,
Not interested in the clay pots and moldin’
Or sitting next to the path, tryin’ to unfold it
Or waiting for the fruits to fall down toward ya’
You let it go and now your flowing feeling quite gorgeous
So you take steps away instead of towards it,
What a rush, feeling freedom with nothing to hold
We’ve been taught that what you touch will always turn to gold
But now we’re learning when we let it go, it overflows
With no credit to take cuz no credit is owned
A higher power working deeper when the seeds are sowed
And when the seeds are true, then they’re seeds of gold
But the real gold is joy, when life starts to flow
And when it does, you just smile, cuz now you know!
Bridge:
I spent a long time runnin
I never knew then, what I know I know now,
That the fruits they always comin’
But you can’t go around just knockin’ them down
It takes a long time to showin’
We plant the seeds then, and we look at them now,
But the roots are always growin’
No matter if I’m there or never around…
[Chorus x3]
Helen’s direction for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday is to share lyrics from a song that has something to do with nature.
Since a major focus in my life right now is freeing trees from invasive plants such as blackberry vines and ivy, I decided to look for songs that talked about trees. The first one that drew me was Michael Mitchell’s song “Little Trees”. While I liked that one a lot, I decided to consider songs from a wide variety of sources. I listened to Bob McGrath (1922) singing a musical version of Joyce Kilmer’s poem- Trees, Metalicca’s- Blackened, Rush’s- The Trees, and Enya’s- Memory of Trees.
These songs varied from hopeful to apocalyptic. I decided to go with the first one I had listened to, one that was written for the purpose of teaching children about trees. Michael Mitchell wrote “Little Trees” for Sesame Street. It is part of his album Canada is for Kids: Volume 1.
LITTLE TREES
I’d like to take a walk in the woods
Come with me, do you think you could
We’ll find a tree that we can climb
We’ll have fun all afternoon
Chorus:
Little trees need a chance to grow
It takes time and care
They’re a lot like us you know
So many kinds of different trees
They look like one big family
Big ones, short ones, baby ones too
I’ll name this one after you
It’ll be a long time before he
Is tall and strong like a grown up tree
For now he’s just a kid like us
Playing out in the woods
For the video, I picked Phantom Ember singing the song. I didn’t have much luck finding out information about Phantom Ember. From what I’ve read, I’m wondering if it is the ghost of Ember McClaine from a Nickelodeon animated television series Danny Phantom. Am I right?
This is one of my favorite color photos. I decided to find out what it would look like in black and white. I like it!
For the last year or so, I have thought about a microscope I owned as a child. I have no idea how old I was then, but I remember spending hours exploring the microscopic world and being fascinated by what I saw. Since it kept coming to my mind, I decided that “someday” I would buy another microscope.
Then this past summer I realized I could add microscopic shots to the photos I publish on this blog. I felt very thankful for the nostalgic memories that led me to that realization.
I purchased a dissecting microscope and began my new venture using an adapter that connects my iPhone to the microscope. I hope someday I have a system that allows me to take photos that more accurately reflect what I see when I look directly into the microscope, but this is a good beginning.
Earlier this week, I photographed a bush that drew my attention. It’s “flowers” were unusual to say the least. Below you will find microscopic views of three parts of that plant. You can click on the galleries to see an enlarged version of the photos.
Red fruit
Brown “flower”
Black dying “flower”
This is what the whole plant looked like:
Do any of you know the name of this plant? If you do, please share it with me and other readers!
“You are enough right now, not after further, future achievements, but now, as you are.
Your wisdom is a valuable contribution to others right now, not after further study and life experience, but now, as it is.
You are worthy of respect and compassion right now, as you are, and not just because Brene Brown says so, but she does say so, and she seems like a nice person.
You are wonderfully lovable as you are right now, not at some future point when you’ve purged yourself of every human foible, but now, and not just because Mr. Rogers would say so, but you know he SO would.
You have the inalienable right to be flawed, ordinary, in your stuff, and off-track. These are fundamental to existence, and in no way subtract from any of the above.
Go forth and rock.”
by Fritz Reitz
Quote used with permission
I laughed when I saw that the Daily Prompt for today was Trees because trees are a major focus of my life right now. I am managing editor for a monthly Pacific Northwest GreenFriends publication. This month we had a special feature section on trees. Last month, I had an interesting experience with a tree that I named the Guardian. (I subsequently wrote two posts about that tree.) And, with the help of a friend, I have started clearing the blackberry vines, ivy and other invasive plants from the Greenbelt lot that is located behind my Seattle home.
Among the trees I have “freed” are two Hawthorn trees. When I showed the big tree to a neighbor, he pointed out that the smaller one to the east of it was actually part of the same tree. In the photo below you can see both of these trees. Also notice the height of the blackberry vines behind the big tree. This whole lot was covered with those densely packed vines a month ago.
I took the photo above last week; below are some I snapped today.
I am thoroughly enjoying my new passion. I think I could spend the rest of my life working in this lot. I’ve seen so many amazing things already… so there will be many more blog posts to come.
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