<p>over30, the Costco hostas are coming up! It’s so exciting. Let’s hope we’re done with snow for the year. This week I’m expecting the few that I bought by mail order to arrive.</p>
<p>worrywart - congratulations. I love spring for the sight of new growth shooting up. </p>
<p>I’ve started putting my coffee grinds out on my hosta beds already - hope the slugs hate the grinds as much as I’ve heard, because I truly hate slugs. A pure, unadulterated hatred. Japanese beetles are just victims of whoever brought them into our country for the first time, and are strangers in a strange land. It’s not their fault they have no natural enemies in the US. But slugs? Vicious, deceitful, slimy little predators that sneak out at night with the sole purpose of destroying the Hayden hosta fields. Yuch.</p>
<p>Hayden, I’ve had great luck with milky spore for Japanese beetles.
<a href=“http://homeharvest.com/milkspore.html[/url]”>http://homeharvest.com/milkspore.html</a></p>
<p>Hostas at my house are truly hardy. Even our hordes of slugs don’t bother them much. And we’ve had very late freezes/snows on occasion, and they always seem to come back strong. The only real problem is our 100 lb. dog who loves to chase squirrels and chipmunks through the beds, and the raccoons and possums who like to wander in our yard. But we’ve never lost more than a few leaves (or whatever they’re called on hostas). Enjoy!</p>
<p>dmd77, the application sounds like a lot of trouble. How do you use it?</p>
<p>Slugs don’t stand a chance with my hostas. The deer eat them right down to the ground. (The hostas, not the slugs, unfortunately. 
)</p>
<p>Worrywart, the milky spore inoculant I used was a powder. I sprinkled it on my lawn straight from the container. Took a few minutes. It sounds like you could do that with the link I gave you–just transfer it into a container with holes in the lid.</p>
<p>Any hummingbird sightings yet? I’m hoping this is going to be the year chez moi.</p>
<p>We had 80 a week ago Monday, expecting snow tonight… Sigh. Gardening and such will follow leaf et al cleanup now that the last of the old oak leaves have fallen. After the snow/ rain ends… May is coming…</p>
<p>Ha, you must be in Minnesota, wis75. No other state could possibly have that weather combination!</p>
<p>nope- Wisconsin, actually the inch or so of snow may come tomorrow. The UP of Michigan near Lake Superior was predicted to get one foot of snow… Ours may end up being rain…</p>
<p>One year some neighbors went to South Dakota/Montana for spring break and had +/- 90 temps and a blizzard on the way home- the plains get wilder weather. We had record temps a week or so ago, now normal to a bit below normal. This is why gardening is still a dream- usually still have some remnants of snow piles in the shaded areas.</p>
<p>Ameteur farmer from Pittsburgh, PA here. Well, my field consists of one fairly large raised bed and a few pots, but you get the idea.</p>
<p>My specialty is green beans. I also grow peppers, tomatoes, cukes, and radishes. None of these plants seem to like it under 50 degrees so I usually don’t plant until the third week of May or so.</p>
<p>Some of the stuff I’ve seen on this thread:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Where to get plants: I usually strike early at Home Depot, where the prices are pretty good. I’ll move these plants in and out for a few weeks and once they’re in they get fertilized at least once a week. My food of choice is Scotts Vegetable Food.</p></li>
<li><p>Pest control: Marigolds repel deer. I usually buy about a dozen and a half of these and put them around the edge of the bed. These suckers can grow pretty big so they can be spaced out. Marigolds also require no maintence whatsoever and come in a bunch of colors (I get an orange and red one every year). Traps are available for smaller critters. I patch the fence at the bottom if I need to and let the grass grow up around it a bit to make it harder to sneak underneath it (plus grass and a fence is tough to cut). With slugs, the best solution is to fill a small recepticle (like an old cream cheese container) with beer. Believe it or not, beer will get them every time. We had the problem a few years back so my mom bought the beer as a friend told her to and sure enough, the slugs were attracted to it and drowned in it.</p></li>
<li><p>Manic Climates: Is it crazy right now or what? A drop of almost 50 degrees in 24 hours? On Tuesday it was near 80 and sunny. When I drove home from choir practice at church tonight, the thermometer on my car read 32, plus there were flurries. Hopefully things get better for Monday when I go to the Pirates home opener (the last opener I went to was like 32 degrees). Anyway, this is why I get my gardens in so late every year.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I would also recommend - If you have a Public Market (or farmer’s market) they often have plants in the spring. They will be CHEAP and locally grown - both good things! Check it out.</p>
<p>Due to NAFTA most of the plants in the big box stores are coming from Canada. The Canadian government subsidizes their greenhouse growers, so they have a competitive edge over ours. That’s fine, but I hate to see our local growers put under.</p>
<p>Does anybody else go to their market? We have a great one and it is the highlight of our summer weekends. (I’ve also given up growing most of my own food now - just a few tomatoes and basil. It’s so cheap to buy stuff at the market!)</p>
<p>Weenie, I do shop at our local farmer’s market, and I’ve found a local grower whose plants are at least as cheap as Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc., and they thrive. Also, our botanical garden and nature center have plant sales every spring with plants they’ve grown, divided, etc. The nature center sells only native plants.</p>
<p>My only problem is a small yard - I’m out of room.</p>
<p>“Marigolds repel deer.”</p>
<p>Really? The deer we had in Massachusetts thought marigolds were appetizers.</p>
<p>Hayden, I’m with you on the slug-hatred, or as I prefer to think of them, “God’s Only Mistake.” </p>
<p>Milky spore is wonderful stuff but tends to be less effective north of zone 6. When I lived in Rhode Island, I swore by the stuff, but since living on Michigan, I’ve quit using it.</p>
<p>^I’m with you on the slug-hatred, or as I prefer to think of them, “God’s Only Mistake.” </p>
<p>Hey! The toads don’t think so!</p>
<p>Weenie, my daughter used to collect the slugs in our yard and place them on the edge of the birdbath “so the birds could have dessert after their bath.” I worked in the nursery/green industry for years, and I still have a deep-seated revulsion when it comes to slugs…I’m not much better with worms! I think I was probably scarred for life in elementary school. Bobby, the boy across the street, would collect worms afer a rain and throw them at me on the way to the bus stop. I ended up with worms stuck to my braids more times than I can count :eek:!</p>
<p>mezzomom: I have fears of snowballs and dodgeball thanks to mean boys. :)</p>
<p>I’m most afraid of Japanese beetles. Most effective pesticide for them?</p>