Garden mail from May

First half of May in the dye garden

The dye plants that were still in the apartment were all moved to the garden at the beginning of May, to slowly get used to outdoor temperatures and direct sunlight. Initially, this meant cycling to the garden once every morning and again in the evening, as the plants were brought back into the shed during the first cooler nights. (And during the day I placed them in (semi-)shade to avoid sunburn).

At the same time, I gradually planted out plants from the plant nursery cold frame (now without a cover, of course) into the bed: the first plants were young weld plants and dyer's chamomile at the beginning of May. After my weld was completely eaten by slugs last year, I only dared to plant five plants and just as much dyer's chamomile - both species protected with slug collars.

Slug collar to the rescue

If you've never used them before, slug collars are available in metal and plastic. The latter are either made of rather thin plastic (I've only found that type in DIY stores so far), and of stronger material, which I've only found online in garden shops. These slug collars are made of very sturdy plastic and I hope that I can use them for many years. I've had some for three years and so far they're still in very good condition. And of course I would prefer the plastic-free version made of metal, but the budget doesn't allow for that, they are very expensive. (And of course this is not sponsored content, just a description of my gardening strategy for this year...)

To ensure that the collars work well, they are pressed into the soil around the plant (make sure that no slugs are hiding inside). And then no leaves, stalks or other plant parts should form a bridge to the collar, because then slugs will quickly find their way in! One disadvantage for me is that I would like to place some plants closer together than is possible with the collars.

I planted my weld and chamomile plants in a bed where other perennial plants were already growing around and between them. So it wasn't easy to distribute the snail collars in a slug-proof way.
But it worked fine!

After a few days, I then dared to set out the woad plants too. They were almost all eaten away last year too, and it was only on the third sowing that I managed to bring through no less than three plants. I also protected the woad with slug collars.

Planting in stages

I was really careful this year. Not only did I increase my stock of snail collars, but I never planted out all the plants of one variety. It was important to me to always have a few spare plants at the ready and to test the snail situation first.

But unlike last year, the situation was more relaxed this time - which certainly has something to do with how (little) humid the weather was. There was little rain here in the first half of May (at the same time, it wasn't super dry like in some other years). When the plants were particularly tender and vulnerable, it simply wasn't cozy enough for the snails.

A few days later, I also ventured into the sulphur cosmos. I planted the strongest plants, and initially only as many as there were snail collars left. They developed well, and when it was 27°C again shortly afterwards and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the plants still looked great and didn't go limp in the blazing sun.

Then around mid-May, one of the sulphur cosmos had to give up its accessory: The self-seeded Hopi Black Dye sunflower was transplanted from the raised bed. It was now big and strong, and I didn't want to wait any longer to transplant it so that the roots wouldn't suffer too much damage when I dug it up. At the same time, I had also sown some of the sunflowers in pots - initially with old seeds (from 2021), only one of which came up. So I sowed again with new seed...

Preliminary conclusion on snail sitch

If you shudder at the thought of snails, you'd better skip this paragraph...

Apart from the protection provided by the slug collars, I actually think there have been fewer slugs here so far this year - but maybe they really are just less visible? At the same time, I've been finding more snails (so the ones with shell houses) in our garden for a few years now, which I'm really pleased about. I didn't see any of them in the first few years - only grapevine snails have still not turned up. I wonder if the return of the shell snails has something to do with our supposedly untidy (in my eyes just more natural...) garden philosophy? In any case, I'm delighted.
These are another reason why I really don't want to sprinkle slug pellets around all the newly planted plants, because that would of course be just as dangerous for them as for the slugs.

Unlike the brown slugs, by the way, snails hardly ever feed on young plants. The same is said of the tiger slugs, even though I have caught them here and there on plants in the act - but in comparison to the brown slugs that happened rarely.

Mulch and slugs

During my first few years of gardening, I actually mulched as much as possible with organic material such as green or lawn cuttings and straw if that wasn't enough. This saves water when watering, and the organic 'blanket' also makes the soil life underneath more vital. In view of the drought and quite sandy soil, this has proved very successful.

I've been doing things a bit differently since last year. Of course, slugs can also hide wonderfully under mulch and always find a safe, damp spot, even when the sun is shining. Mulch is probably not a good idea if there is a lot of slug pressure.

So at the moment there are only a few mulched beds here, for example with strawberries and potatoes, even though I'm reluctant to leave the soil bare. I think that when the dye plants are big and strong - and the summer is dry - I will look into mulching again.

Stressed plants

My planting out in stages had one disadvantage: Many plants stayed in (small) pots longer than was ideal. They don't really get going if they don't have enough space and nutrients.
Some of my weld plants didn't look good at all: Not only were they still in small pots, but after heavy rain in the last third of May, they had also been standing in water in their trays for a few days. The plants don't tolerate waterlogging well, and that showed. The light green leaves had turned a bright orange color. I quickly transplanted them either out or into larger pots. And it's amazing how quickly the plants then regenerate!

Second half of May

I continued to plant out... black scabiosa, double and single cosmos, later tickseed and finally dyer's marigold. I was particularly careful with these and didn't want to plant them out too small - last year I only managed to get one plant through and harvested three flowers... The first of my pot-sown sunflowers has now also been planted out.

The whole thing felt like slug collar ballet to me. I waited for the plants to get bigger first, then removed the collars from some of them as a test in order to plant new ones, and if that went well, I removed all the collars. I didn't have enough collars for the black scabiosa, so every second plant got its collar - they all did well.

I felt encouraged when planting out tickseed, and transplanted half of them first, but completely unprotected. A few plants were nibbled on a little, but not completely abraded like last year.

I also planted out my two varieties of dyer's knotweed (or Japanese indigo). The pink-flowering variety directly into a bed, the white one into a large zinc tub. The plants of the former were already quite large, so I plucked some of the longest stems immediately after planting. This encourages the plants to branch out further and the stems root very quickly in water. After just over a week, I was able to plant them and use them to fill my last row in the bed.
This was a good time to plant them out, because what did I discover? A fat slug that had made a fabulous home in the water glass with the rooted cuttings...

Rejoiced too soon...

There were a few very wet rainy days at the end of the month (which was good news, as the rain barrels were empty by then). And then there was still a little bit of slug damage. The dyer's chamomile, which I had planted together with the weld, was particularly hard hit. Both were now collarless and, unlike last year, the weld hardly got snacked on this time.
But not so bad, I still had dyer's chamomile in pots and had found a few self-seeded plants in the garden. So I filled in the gaps again and distributed collars again... Maybe the second attempt will work. The dyer's knotweed also is a slug favorite this year, but only individual leaves were nibbled on, not the whole plant. I can live with that!
And I took advantage of the damp weather to collect a 'few' slugs from the beds and plants - my goodness, there were a lot. They were later relocated. Even if I'm not sure whether that really helps... Or will they be back after a little while?

End of May

The seeds from last year's woad are already ripening and the overwintered dyer's chamomile is beginning to flower. The slugs are also nibbling on it, so they don't just go for the young plants: They climb up the stems of the sturdy perennials to get to the flowers, which are probably more delicate than the old leaves...

There are also already buds on the largest of the sulphur cosmos, which will certainly flower earlier than ever before. So the harvesting of the dye flowers will start sometime in June!

Flax progress

At the very beginning of the month, I weeded between the rows of flax once. Next time I should leave a centimeter or two more space so that I can get between them better with my tools. After that, I only plucked a few weeds from the flax bed. The plants are shooting up and making it uncomfortable for small plants to follow.
Overall, the flax grew quickly, but very variably in height, unlike what I had hoped for. Uniformly tall and thick stems make it easier to process afterwards. I'm curious to see if that might be a bit of a problem. And I wonder, did I not loosen the bed evenly? Or is this due to the variety, or even completely normal?

June: What's coming up in the dye garden

The last of my reseeded sulphur cosmos and dyer's marigold definitely need to be planted out soon.

I still have a few plants of perennial girl's eye in a pot, protected from the sun. I had already received two fully-grown specimens as a gift in the fall and planted them in a bed with perennial flowers.
They actually regrews after the winter, but were completely eaten everytime they popped up. As a result, I haven't yet dared to put the young plants sown in spring in the same place, but it's probably about time... Because the bed is already planted with just a few empty places, the slug collars probably won't work so well. Let's see how that turns out!

I also need to find room for a few more of the Hopi Black Dye sunflowers.

And I completely forgot to sow madder until now. Hopefully that will happen in June... And, note to self, maybe for you too: I really want to sow forget-me-nots again, which will flower next year. They're not dye plants, but I really like them, and June is a good time to sow!

What else?

There were a few surprise guests this month: to my great delight, a pair of redstarts inaugurated our nesting box! It had been hanging unattended for a few years and I was thrilled when I discovered the blue eggs in it.
The parent birds guarded the nest diligently throughout May. I was a bit worried whether my presence in the garden would cause them too much stress, as they were really quite anxious. But they successfully incubated, fed and the offspring have now moved out of the nest!

Not so fluffy, but also great: there are pond newts in the tub pond again, I spotted some there a few times last year! When I fished out a few water plants, I accidentally caught a few little newts in the cup. They were of course put back straight away. The 'pond' is simply a 90-liter mortar tub buried at ground level, stocked with aquatic plants from the DIY store (or those of them that have proven to be frost-resistant...). I bought it in 2022 in a rush because I was impatient after a long period of pond research and wanted to do something quickly. The pond was met with a lot of doubt and criticism, but has nonetheless become a small biotope.
So if you are thinking about finding space for nesting boxes or a pond, I can highly recommend both!

If you would like to read the April garden mail, click here.

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