Photo: The mint plants in our herb spiral are growing like crazy.

As promised at the end of my last post, not everything has been killed by the slugs (thank goodness). Photo-documenting our happy plants in the garden last night made me feel more hopeful. We’re losing a lot to the slugs, but some plants are prevailing. Almost all of these happy plants are growing in garden beds that are in their second season. I don’t know a lot about soil health (something I want to learn way more about), but I do know that, if cared for properly, it improves over time. Most of the slug attacks are taking place in our new beds that have just been built over the last six months. As both Chris’ here on the property say, ‘Slugs don’t go after healthy plants’. That means that part of our problem is that we (or maybe just me) are probably expecting too much out of our new beds. We need to give the soil in our new beds (and all the different compost and mulching materials we’ve put into them) time to balance itself out and reach a happy equilibrium. Maybe then the slugs will find other gardens to hang out in. In the meantime, here are some shots of some of our happy young edibles…

Young, leafy kale plants (1 of 4 different varieties we’ve planted):

Spinach Popeye would be proud of:

Mixed salad greens:

Sturdy garlic (with young scapes that will be ready for harvesting soon!):

Strawberry plants (planted in cement building blocks that form an edge around one of our garden beds):