Berry picking season has arrived! I am super excited. Be on the lookout for early strawberry varieties. I have even been buying Hoods for the past two weeks! Most berry growers I talked to at the farmers market last weekend said their berries are ahead of schedule by about 2 weeks. The heat this week should help them ripen even faster.
Here are a few tips when picking and using fruit from u-pick fields:
- Check out Pick Your Own or Local Harvest for a berry farm near you. Call ahead for availability and prices.In general, fields are picked heavier in the morning and on weekends.
- U-pick produce: 9 tips for picking success
- How to freeze berries and How to properly freeze fruit
- Picking berries with kids
- 35 ways to use summer produce
Outdoor grilling season. The end of school signals the beginning of summer. At least in theory. In the Northwest, June weather is such a mixed bag, but we’ve had a great run so far. Grilling outdoors often involves running back and forth in the rain holding a dinner plate over my head to check on the grill. That’s totally NW normal, right?
I will be baking up several batches of Homemade Hamburger Buns this month to pair with burgers right off the grill. A few weeks ago, I made hamburgers by grinding my own meat with my Kitchen Aid attachment. Seriously, some of the best burgers I have ever eaten. The bun recipe also work great shaped into hot dog buns. Make some for your first BBQ of the summer!
Finally, slugs. Sorry to save the worst for last. What are your best tips for dealing with Oregon’s State Pest? I am not having nearly as much trouble with slugs this year (but don’t even get me started on the rabbit population). More on non-toxic slug barriers later this week! From past comments, I think beer traps are hands down my favorite idea. Has anyone tried these? For some reason, I really like the image of myself hunting slugs in the early morning hours, wearing my bathrobe and carrying a can of cheap beer.
Leave a comment! What have you been working on in your home, kitchen, or garden lately? Where is your favorite place to pick or purchase berries?
This post may contain affiliate links. See the disclosure policy for more information.
What about aphids? I have aaallllllooooottttt of those on my kale and roses?
My husband and I and our three kids would go slug hunting every night last yr and hunt those suckers! And made it a family thing to do! lol lol
My kids would come up to me and ask: ” are we going slug hunting tonight”. Lol lol
My dad used mayo lids for the beer traps. They work great! The slugs do not need to drown only to drink. In the early morning there are rings of dead slugs surrounding the lid then the birds arrive and eat them. If you use commercial bait it works well to put the bait under something such as a board held up by 4 pebbles. The slugs will go under it to hide and eat the bait while pets won’t have access to it.
I started watering my garden in the morning instead of at night and that had a huge impact on the amount of slugs in the garden. Slugs come out at night and love the wet, so when you water in the morning, the ground has a chance to dry out during the day making it a less enticing place for them to go.
I bought via the internet some copper banding and have surrounded my plants with it. Apparently the copper gives a slug the equivalent of an electric shock sufficient to turn it away. So far, so good.
Beer traps work wonders. I stumbled accross this idea years ago after a little party where some can were missed. When I went to empty the cans they were full of slugs. Now I ask that a 1/4 of the beer be left and lay the can on it’s side hole up, tab down, into the garden around the plants, rain dosen’t fill them and I just toss them they fill up with slugs It’s pretty hard to get all the slugs out, but I haven’t found anything better.
Wow! I have only lived in the NW (Beaverton) for about a year and a half – I had NO idea it was slugs eating my garden! I put out ‘beer traps’ last night – 6 already in my tiny garden area. Thanks!
Welcome to the Northwest!
I have been using oystershell this year…since we have chickens and a big bag that didn’t cost much. It has really worked in my strawberries!!! We use to use beer traps, but this seems to work pretty well. My husband has also used some slugo…our garden is enclosed from our dog and he has put it in plastic bottles so birds don’t get it and it isn’t just on the ground. It has helped as well. Good luck and feel you pain!
I was going to say salt works, you could try putting a ring around your garden so if they crawl through it they die. I’m not a gardener though, so I don’t know what that would do to soil quality. And it probably won’t hold up if it rains.
I was going to say copper tape. It’s a little spend and I found it at Wilco farm store
If you have a defined border, brick, wood, etc. get Copper Tape from a hardware store – the slugs won’t cross it because it carries an electric charge. I think it has to be a minimum width of 1-inch, but a simple google search might work.
I did the copper tape all the way around my raised beds. The slugs crawled right across it. They did not care at all. Plus I got SO many cuts placing it around 2 4×8 beds. Expensive and not worth it, for me anyway. I like some of the suggestions I’ve read on hear. I might try the coffee grounds and the oyster shells.
I’d suggest ducks or chickens, ducks like slugs and pill bugs more than chickens. Plus you’ll get free fertilizer 😉 We had a chicken and 2 boys and a dog and we didn’t have a problem with the fertilizer coming inside, plus it was great to have organic, free range eggs, which you can also use for slugs 😉 Good luck!
I used cheap beer in pie tins. It worked great but it seemed that the slugs did their snacking on their way to belly up to the bar. Plus I ended up having nightmares after emptying it one night. But that’s just me!
Belly up to the bar, boys! I am laughing out loud right now.
I use tuna cans mostly and bury them so they’re level with the soil , the slugs slide right in and I immediately see a difference in the health of my plants!
We tried using malt liquor instead of beer. At the local Grocery Outlet they had 6packs of 4lokos for $1.99 and since that is much cheaper than beer I thought it might be worth a try. Well I caught only 1 slug out of 3 traps and when I went out to check on it there was a slug half an inch from the trap happily snacking on my cucumber plant. Also a warning… Unless you know someone who is 21-22 and will drink anything the 4lokos are not good for human consumption either in my opinion.
I hate to say, I have tried it all. But we live next to a wetland and the slugs outnumber any effort I have tried. Now I just deadline my the perimeter of my garden and no problems for the last two years. I know the chemicals are a bad thing, but I have given up.
My parents own a feed store and they sell oyster shell, which is great for chickens to peck at (it helps to make their egg shells thicker, I think). Anyways, it’s a great alternative to egg shells, and you can put a nice border around the garden. It’s really cheap, too!
I can’t stand emptying the dead slugs from beer traps. I use an iron phospahte based bait in my garden, not nealry as toxic as Meta (the active ingredient in many baits), and OK to use in organic gardens. Sluggo is one brand to look for…it is really spendy, so here is my frugal tip: Go together with your friends and purchase a 50 pound bag at Concentrates (in Milwuakie) and divide it up, works out to less than $3 per pound.
Last summer I tried all the non-toxic methods including egg shells and cornmeal. Nothing worked. The slugs ate ALL of our first planting. So I got Corry’s slug bait. Worked great. We at the second crop:-)
Try 2 ltr plastic pop bottles cut off the top 2 to 3in down and invert it into the bottom of the bottle. Pour some beer in, slug go in and drown. Since it is covered no rain can wash out the beer, then pick up the whole thing and throw away.
If there are a few dry days I use cornmeal to get rid of slugs. I just sprinkle some around my plants and avoid watering for a few days. The slugs eat the cornmeal and it expands and they die. It takes a little planning, but is non-toxic and safe around my pets and kids!
Did you see the Groupon for U-Pick berries? Hoffman Farms in Beaverton, which I’ve never been to – but $10 for $20 worth of berries, I’ll give it a try! I think it’s also good for the already picked berries, too.
Coffee grounds. I was reading on this, and you can even talk to your local starbucks about getting them for free. Your tomatoes should be extra large because of the effects that the grounds have on the garden. It said something about adding lime for less acidity liking plants, but I don’t remember the amounts, and that slugs stay away.
I think they charge for them now 🙁
Just an FYI the norpac in salem sells great strawberries from Nov-June they are 4lbs for $2. We go through at least 15 bags a year for smoothies and angel food cake. Great place to get corn, green beans and apples too.
I personally use egg shells successfully. I have heard that hazelnut shells do the same thing and you can buy them by the bag. Use instead of bark dust and they last several years.
Great tip! Thanks. I have been crushing up egg shells in my flowerpots. I like the look, and it seems to be helping my poor petunias.
They keep your tomatoes from getting black blossom rot as well by adding calcium to the soil. Good luck!
My husband says, “Get a duck!”
He is right! I grew up with ducks, and it’s amazing how they keep the slug population at bay! I’m hoping free-ish range chickens would do the same. Anyone know?
We tried the beer traps last year, but didn’t have great success. I think I overcomplicated it by using 2 liter bottles made into traps that I had seen at a Farmer’s Market. I am going to try again with simply burying the cottage cheese like containers up to 1/2″ as someone suggested.
As far as chickens go, ours don’t seem all that interested in slugs and tend to leave them alone. The garden friendly earth worms on the other hand…. they love those.
Beer traps work well trapping slugs. However, racoons love them too. I set out traps all around my garden and the racoons will come play with them at night. I don’t know if they drink them but in the morning the tubs are all empty.
Ha! The thought of tipsy racoons playing in my garden all night is enough to try it. Good to know, though. Maybe the suggestions with the lids would help? Although I know raccoons can get into anything…
The slug in your picture is not harmful to your garden. It is a native banana slug to Oregon. It is the darker, black/brown, smaller slugs that are garden pests. Please don’t kill harmless native slugs! They usually aren’t interested in garden produce.
This is actually just a picture I grabbed off Flickr. It was the least creepy, slimy one I could find. 🙂 Trust me, I’ve got plenty of those brown slugs you’re talking about!
Beer only works if the slugs drink it before the dogs do.
Ha ha ha! Thanks for the tip. Don’t think the beer traps will work for me, then.
Good point! I hadn’t thought of that. The last thing I need is a drunk dog right now 🙂
That’s hilarious!!! LOL!
beer in tuna cans worked for us last year!
I think I’ve heard on the beer traps-that you can leave the lid on and cut a hole up near the top-but so it is still deep enough for the slugs to drown (bury the bottom 1/2 still)-helps in the NW so the rain doesn’t dilute it constantly. I haven’t tried this myself-so has anyone else?
I have used 1/2 of cantaloupe (or any melon) rinds-turned upside down-maybe leave a little opening on the side-up on something on one side. I did this recently-only got one slug, but got many small black bugs & as it was by my chard-that something has been eating-maybe I got those too.
I’ve been using beer traps too and they work great. I use whatever plastic containers I have (butter, cream cheese, yogurt or whatever) and bury them to within about a half inch of the top, and fill with beer. It is absolutely disgusting how many end up in there! When you dump them be sure to do it somewhere away from your garden, because the smell will linger and attract more slugs. I dig a hole far away from my gardens and dump them all in there, and bury them. It’s a disgusting job, but non-toxic and effective.
Salt works too. Just shake some salt out on to the slug and they’ll be dead soon. We lived in Oregon when I was a little girl and I remember cleaning the slugs off of our patio every morning.
I’ve used beer traps with real success. I buy the cheapest case of canned beer I can find. I tried using some yogurt containers this year but they seem to be too deep and they aren’t working as well as wider and shallower plastic containers, so I’ll buy some more cheap Glad ones soon. You don’t want the container to be too shallow — at least 1-2 inches deep so the slugs drown in there. I have to put out many containers around my garden. I have some near one end of my lettuce patch and sure enough, and it got a lot of slugs, but I left the other end of my lettuce patch vulnerable and sure enough, the slugs devoured several lettuce plants.
So the trick is just to put out many containers in different vulnerable spots around your garden and keep refilling the containers. I refill probably twice a week but right now with the rain I should be refilling probably 3 times a week. It’s not always pleasant to empty the containers, but I’m pretty squeamish and it’s not that bad. You’ll be amazed at how many teeny tiny slugs you capture!
Beer traps aren’t the cheapest remedy probably but they easy and nontoxic, which I appreciate.
Thank you, Debbie! Great information.
I like the beer traps too although they are so gross to empty. What to do with the big soup of dead slugs…eww! sometimes I just throw the whole thing away 🙁