Backyard gardening is getting more exciting each year, as we learn more about the Do’s And Don’t of backyard gardening.

Last year was the first time I planted zucchini but I put it on the wrong side of our garage and there wasn’t much sun during those all important summer days. Needless to say it didn’t get very big.

Also I couldn’t seem to get the slugs under control. We had one zucchini that was about 6 inches in length. Not my proudest moment.

This year I planted the zucchini on the south side of the garage and I used a few techniques to get rid of slugs, a very persistent garden pest. I tried the beer method to get them drunk and have them drown but that didn’t work at all.

Egg shells seemed to work but we don’t eat many eggs, certainly not enough for the area my zucchinis occupy.

I am so proud of my Zucchini’s this year

However, Slug B Gon worked really we and is eco-friendly which is most important to Jenny and I.

I went out a few minutes ago, in the rain, to get a zucchini to grill up with dinner tonight. Mmmm love grilled zucchini with olive oil and some herb mix.

They are well hidden in amongst the leaves so I had to hold the leaves back with my hand to get the shot about. Then I cut it off at the stalk.

Then I put in on the edge of our vegetable garden for the next picture, it almost looks like a cucumber but it sure won’t taste like one once I am done grilling it.

This zucchini is almost longer than my entire zucchini plant was from last year. What a difference a little more sun will make. Bon Appetit

Well I decided to give using beer to get rid of slugs but the first night I put out a container of beer our neighbour drank it, okay that’s not really true. But it did rain so hard that the beer all washed out and all that remained in the morning was a container of H2O.

Bad luck or timing so I decided to give it another try. This time I checked the weather forecast and it was clear so I filled the container again and went to bed.

I came out this morning and the container was still full of beer but no slugs at all. What a waste of two perfectly good beers. But I thought later that maybe our slugs were picky and didn’t care for Bud Light beer.

Anyways I can’t see using beer and having to keep a supply just to get slugs drunk.

I went out and bought an eco-friendly slug bait called Slug-B-Gon and just finished putting it out. I will wait and see if the damage in my garden stops now.

Last night I tried another all natural method to hold back those ever hungry slugs from eating our precious garden plants. They especially like our zucchini plant.

I have heard that crushed egg shells makes slugs very uncomfortable as it’s like walking on knives.

We normally put egg shells, along with the other kitchen waste, in our compost bin but I kept one egg shell, well it was the only one we had left, to use for a test.

I just took the egg shell and crushed it into pretty small pieces and sprinkled them around my zucchini plant. Not sure how well it will work with just one egg but tomorrow is grocery day so we will more soon.

I got about 5:30 this morning and just had to go out immediately to see if the slugs did any damage.

Well, like I said I only had one egg shell but I can that I only lost one blossom on my zucchini which is a huge improvement over the last few nights. I couldn’t cover every with just one egg but I am quite pleased with the results, for only having one egg shell to work with.

We don’t eat many eggs because of my heart problems but Sunday is the day we do so I will have 6 egg shells to give this little experiment another try Sunday night and see how things are Monday morning.

Last year I planted my Zucchini in a spot that didn’t get a lot of direct sunlight and we had a major slug problem. We didn’t get any zucchini, well okay we got one baby one that barely visible to the naked eye.

This year I planted my zucchini in the direct sunlight and today we have our first blossom. I am not taking any chances with slugs and other crawlies that like zucchini flowers but I will get rid of the slugs naturally.

Here is our little zucchini:

How To Get Rid of Slug in Your Garden

I was watching a video on Youtube about getting rid of slugs in your garden, a great place to learn so much, and I learned a little trick I am going to try in controlling slugs that want to eat my garden plants.

Water Your Garden Early Morning

Chosing When To Water Your Garden: Slugs like the damp moist places and watering your garden at the end of the day when it starts to get a little cooler is just the way to keep your garden moist and damp all night.

Instead of watering your garden in the evening wait until early morning, before the sun is strong, and then water your garden.

That will help more than you might imagine.

Pick ‘em Off One at a Time: I have found that when I go out early morning before the sun gets too warm I can just scan my garden and pick any slugs off my plants and dispose of them.

Here is a picture of one slug trying to escape my grasp but he didn’t make it far and was easy to follow and catch.

These methods seem to work well and as the summer moves on and it gets hotter and drier you will find their numbers decrease. It’s early season I seem to have the most problems.

However, it only takes a bit of rain for slugs to get the upper hand so keep your guard up and your garden slug free.

Gardening can be great. You will be able to give yourself as well as your family with your own home-grown vegetables that will be straight from your backyard garden. You will not just save money by gardening, but the fruits plus vegetables that you grow will be without chemical fertilizers by means of composting. The way you compost can make a huge change in your success.

What is composting? Compost is a blend of yard waste, kitchen waste, plus other natural materials that are entirely broken down (decomposed) into a material that you can employ to help feed the garden. It is a dark material that will be a “food” used for your soil because it is so full of nutrients from all the natural matter it posses. The practical term used for compost is humus. However, for our aim here we are going to just describe it compost.

Why should you learn how to compost? You will see that there are actually two intentions to start making compost: First, it will be totally environmentally safe. It reduces the quantity of wastes that goes into our landfills. The more composting you employ in, the less you can be contributing to the charge of refuse elimination. Composting very much reduces the need for manufactured along with possibly dangerous fertilizers. Employing fewer chemicals will mean that there is less ground water contamination from the overuse of fertilizer. Second, since compost will be packed of organic nutrients, it is great for the garden. Composting improves the nature of the soil. This will be able to create healthier vegetation. A healthier plant is further immune to plant diseases. Compost in addition will make it more simple for the dirt to embrace plus preserve water. It will improve sandy as well as clay-like soil.

Learning how to compost is vital. So what is it that you can you employ to compose compost? You will want to create some plot in order to execute this correctly. Remember that you will, however, want to produce a space close to the garden so that the composting site is easily easy to get to. You may moreover choose to make it simple for you to get all the raw materials such like food, leaves, clippings from cut grass, and so on into the compost bin.

What should you not use in your compost? You should not use any meats in the compost blend. Furthermore, you have to avoid any animal fats. If you apply these, you are going to accidentally attract little “neighbors” from the adjacent vicinity wanting to eat out of the composting bin. Do not add newspaper or shredded paper. Using these will be a problem since they are known to include chemicals that can be a bit unsafe for your compost. Dog as well as cat feces are a problem because they will have little parasites plus they as well contain a dreadful odor. Your compost pile is not a waste area. However you will be able to employ manure from horses, chickens, and cattle in small amounts. Although they will contain an smell as well.

How do you compost? Build a container or else bin that can hold all the materials that you have to add. You might be able to go on the net for a blueprint of your choice. Nevertheless the key factor to do in composting is turning your composting mixture again and again. This gets your mix ideal plus provides fundamental oxygen to the composting process.

Composting right is going to establish a thriving and healthier garden that you may benefit from while being environmentally furthermore cost conscious. A win-win for everyone.