Beer Party at the Jackson Rose Farm

You worked hard last night, slug family. Have a beer.

I told our nearby nursery owner that we passed the rose gardens label at some point. Now we are a rose farm. He laughed.

Last night I bought a six-pack of beer and hosted a beer party - for slugs. I had an overwhelming response from two nights of beer in the sunny - aka straw bale garden. I noticed last night that the army of slugs was down to one or two obvious stragglers.

My earlier effort near the two struggling Passion Flower vines was successful for two nights, so I threw a new party there, plus one near my barely present Butterfly Bush - the only one barely above the soil.

One more pan was put near the kitchen door, and I realize the little patio was filled with damp slug food, leaves and organic debris, kept wet by my watering. No wonder they come inside each night - to thank me. That beer pan yielded very little, unless some creature ate from it.

This party cost me $2 in beer for the two bottles. Next I will place a circle or square of copper tape around the vulnerable plants. The slugs have an electrical charge, so they cannot pass across the copper barrier, not unlike the rich man who neglected Lazarus.

The organic remedies are:

• Let them drown themselves in a bowl or pan of beer.
• Surround the target plants with copper mesh or tape.
• Tap a little salt on the outliers.
• Be extra solicitous for the comfort, shelter, and hydration of toads. Ducks, toads, and starlings eat slugs.

Borage flowers are pink and blue, dropping seed all the time.

Borage is fun to eat off the plant.

This wide view shows how borage looks like its cousin comfrey (knitbone), another eager grower. Knitbone is often grown for the compost pile.

Bee Balm has many names, including Horse Mint, and many of God's creatures love it - bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies.