My new enemy, slugs

 I didn't have a problem with then so far, but in the last week, they started to eat my seedligs and when i looked around, there are a lot of them crawling through the grass. Don't know where they all came from.

So I started picking them up. I got twice as many as the picture below in just an hour one evening.

And since they do such damage to my plants, i cannot spare their lives. I don't like squashing them so I found a good solution online for how to terminate them. I put them in a bottle with vinegar. This way they die quick and they don't smell bad later. Once the bottle is full i'll pour it in the compost pile.

Bee hotel's first guest

I made a bee hotel for solitary bees. I made if from a bird feeder and some bamboo poles. I cut out the side of the bird feeder and the bamboo poles and then stuck them inside.

Then I placed the bee hotel next to a big rose waited for a month or 2 and now one of the bamboo tubes is closed. The one on top right. I just hope it is a bee and not a pest.

2 days later I got to see the bee nesting there. I was hoping to get a picture of it leaving the nest, but it just stayed there chasing away the ants.

Nematodes through the microscope

I have applied nematodes to the garden and afterwards I checked the remaining powder under the microscope to see if they're alive. I have a hobby microscope but it is good enough to see the nematodes.

They are really tiny, cannot see them with the naked eye.

Tomato roofed bed

I decided to make a tomato bed under the roof extension by the shed. Some of my neighbours have something similar to protect the tomatoes from blight.

I'll have some tomatoes here, some in the field with plastic covers and some without and see how it works out.

This the the way it looked before.

And after setting up the tomato bed.

I set a couple of tomatoes already, but I'll plant more.

Mole crickets and nematodes

This is a hole made by a mole cricket in my greenhouse. 

These 2 mole crickets I have found in one of the pots. The pot had big drainage holes and they followed the water trail and crawled into my pot to eat the plants.  I found 3 other mole crickets in the greenhouse and have applied the nematodes to the soil and to them.

Now these 2 are my control group.

These are the nematodes.

And these are the mole crickets that i applied the nematodes to. Now i wait to see if they are working.

Planted zucchinis

Today I planted the zucchinis. The sprouts were getting too big for the pot so they had to go outside.
I have green zucchini, yellow zucchini and striped zucchini. 4 sprouts for each kind, so we might end up with a lot of zucchinis.

Another mole cricket

Today I found another mole cricket. It was just digging through the drain holes in one of my pots. Good I caught it in time. Now I have it with another 4 in a little bucket waiting to test the nematodes.

Tomato volunteer

This guy came out in the greenhouse. It must be from the tomatoes the previous owner had last year. I wonder what kind of tomato it is. 

For now I moved it outside and covered it with a plastic cloche. I saw a second one in the greenhouse which I'll move also when it gets bigger.