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Amanda's Blog

Amanda's Garden Consulting Company

​Leaky birdbaths; the answer to slug free strawberries.

25/6/2017

0 Comments

 
It is strawberry season and there is a battle between who gets to eat them first: me or the slugs. 

Slugs always seem to get to my strawberries before I do, which is why I thought I would thwart those slimy creatures with planting a few strawberry plants in an old leaky birdbath. It was better than chucking out the old thing. My only issue is that it needs to be a tad deeper as I have to water it more often than I care to. I am impressed that there already strawberries dangling over the rim. Easy pickings for us but not so much for those darn slugs.

Since I am the lucky owner of another leaking birdbath, I jumped at the offer of some hens and chicks (Sempervivum tectorum) plants from my kindly neighbour. I thought they would look rather nice perched atop a birdbath with their ‘chicks’ cascading over the edge. We’ll see how that works. They should do better than the strawberries as they are succulents, which don’t mind drying out if I fail to water them as often as I should. Hey, nobody is perfect and sometimes life just takes over.

In fall, these captured and suspended strawberries, as well as the hens & chicks, will have to come down to earth. I plan to unscrew the top of the birdbath and set them in the ground. They probably wouldn’t survive the winter without the thermal heat of the earth to keep them cozy.  
​
In the meantime, I will see how this works, especially with the watering issue. After all, it is an experiment and just a bit of gardening fun.
Cheers,
Amanda
Picture
As you can see, the birdbath isn't very deep, but the strawberries don't seem to mind as long as I keep up the watering. Sure wish it would rain....
Picture
Dangling ripe, slug-free strawberries. They don't seem to make it into the kitchen though.
Picture
Hens & chicks like it hot and dry so logically, they should do better than the strawbs.
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    Archives

    Here are some of my previous blog postings. They cover a wide range of topics from bugs to my botanical excursions and conventions. Click on whichever interests you on the titles below for easy navigation. 
    • ​Building a French Kitchen (Potager) Garden
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Tomato Taming
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvests
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Plant Rusts
    • Dunbar Garden Club Garden Tour 2020
    • Rose Bloom Balling
    • ​Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses Do Exist.. Really!​
    • Easy Vegetable Garden Trellis 
    • Tomato Seedlings to Plants
    • Video: How to Divide Dahlias 
    • Video: How to Plant a Tree
    • Video: How to Prune a Grapevine in Winter
    • Damping Off - A Seedling Killer!
    • Lawns: ​Seeding, Sowing, Renovating
    • Lawn Grub Control
    • Tuberous Begonias 101
    • Dahlias 101
    • Pruning in Winter
    • Pruning & Training Grape Vines in Winter
    • Insects & Diseases Control with Dormant Spray
    • Dealing With Drought
    • Heritage Vancouver 7th Annual Garden Tour
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Pruning Shrubs into Trees
    • 10 Steps to Festive Planter
    • Christmas Tree Selection 
    • Collecting & Saving Seeds
    • Heritage Vancouver 6th Garden Tour
    • The Dunbar Garden Tour 2018
    • Dart's Hill, A Garden Park
    • VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visit
    • Tall Kale Tales
    • Northwest Flower & Garden Show, Seattle
    • Pruning in Winter
    • Pruning & Training Grape Vines in Winter
    • Insects & Diseases Control with Dormant Spray
    • Why Christmas cactus Don't Blossom
    • A Quickie Festive Swag
    • Putting the Garden to Bed
    • How to Drain Soggy Soil
    • A Visit to the Arizona - Sonora Desert
    • Banana, Palm Tree Winter Protection
    • Lasagna Gardening, Sheet Mulching
    • Saving Geraniums, Coleus, Bougainvilleas & Other Tender Plants 
    • Spiders Everywhere - Oh My!
    • Tomato Troubles & Soil Solarization
    • Trees That Drip That Sticky Stuff
    • Balcony Bliss
    • June Bugs - One Huge Beetle! 
    • A Summer's Day Harvest
    • The Dunbar Garden Club Private Tour
    • Leaky Birdbaths and Slug Free Strawberries
    • Oops... Wrong Plant, Wrong Place
    • I Had An Ugly Lawn...​
    • ​How to Make a Christmas Elf
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • To subscribe to my blog click here. 

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Photo used under Creative Commons from vwcampin
  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
  • Lawn Basics
    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
    • Lawn Alternatives
    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
  • Propagation
    • Growing Seeds Outdoors
    • Growing Seeds Indoors
    • Taking Cuttings
    • Seed & Plant Catalogues
  • How to Garden Topics
    • Fall Garden Chores
    • Planting Know-How
    • Soil Building
    • Watering Tips & Techniques
    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
  • Container Growing
    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
  • Plant of the Month
    • Spring Flowering Bulbs
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Dahlias
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pink Dawn Bodnant Viburnum
    • Poinsettias
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Ornamental Kale
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
    • Snowberry
    • Snowdrops
    • Star Magnolia
    • Strawberry Tree, Pacific Madrone
    • Stewartia
    • Torch Lily, Kniphofia uvaria
    • Tree Peonies
    • Tuberous Begonias
    • Virginia Creeper
    • Weigela
    • Winterhazel, Corylopsis
    • Winter Camellia, C. sasanqua
    • Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens
    • Witch Hazel
    • Wood Anemones
    • Yews
  • Garden Tour Blogs
  • Monthly Flower Arrangements
  • Website Index
  • Subscribe
  • Need Help?
  • Garden Club Events