I have a garden thief and it's not just slugs or deer. It's a human being. I am pretty sure. Not 100% yet, because I have to confirm one thing, but it looks true.
Not only are they stealing from my garden, they're leaving behind new things for me to throw out which were not there when I'm weeding. A little glass tube for who knows what. Odd little objects that my parents have nothing to do with and this person is just leaving them on the top soil.
It looks like they dug up one of my clumps of Corsica Mint, and possibly stole either all of my cauliflower or all of my broccoli. But I say, about that, I think so. I have to check. I had two varieties in one row and now there's only one and empty spots where the other used to be. To be sure, I'm confirming my starter plant appearance.
My English lavendar, earlier seeded, never came up as well and I had wondered about that too. I thought possibly someone did something because I've never had my seeds not show up. I mean, never. Maybe the plants get eaten by slugs, but at least they sprout. So I didn't know if someone went around spraying everything or what. I thought possibly it wasn't a good batch or something else was wrong. But now that I have another row tampered with, it just looks like garden theft.
My small attempts to keep deer out have worked. The deer haven't been in my garden since I planted a little Corsica Mint and marigolds and onions. I interplanted onions next to my lettuces and green leaf things to throw them off and it works.
My simpson lettuce was doing great and then slugs got it, but I don't think it was just slugs now maybe.
Also, there was a big hole like something got dug up at the top of this one section of my garden but I figured that might have been an animal.
One thing I read from an online site, refering to a scripture in the Bible which I wondered about, is "Plant your seed in the morning..."
I planted the entire border of English Lavendar at night.
Maybe planting at night is not what plants like, as maybe they need to feel the earth warmer from the start, to think they'd like to grow there, or maybe it's just a good tip because in the old days people were sabotaging crops at night. I don't know. I don't think it should make that much of a difference because some seeds you place in cold water, in the dark overnight to give them a start, so why should soil at night be any different?
Anyway, I reseeded the border yesterday morning and then it's possibly ruined again, for the second time, because it appears someone has possibly been in my garden and taken some things. Like I said, I'm not completely positive yet, but I think so.
If it's not someone sabotaging, it's maybe something with the batch, but there shouldn't be anything wrong with it. I had the idea come to mind to take a few and puncture them with a fine needle and then take another few and leave alone and then place both in separate water to see which sprouts better. I haven't ever punctured a seed before but it came to mind. I've gone through my little pots of starters recently, with a knife, and gently made light holes to aerate the soil, wondering if this helped. First I was just looking for seeds, and then thought to aererate (msp).
Aha. I learned something new today. It's called "scarifying" the seed (to puncture it first). Then it says "stratification" is when you prepare the seeds with a cold treatment first, or other (I think) temperature related ideas.
Aha! Here's a link about specifically scarifying lavendar:
http://site.cleanairgardening.com/info/start-your-lavender-from-seedlings-not-seeds.html
In the past, I think I've planted lavendar in my garden, but maybe not. I might not have ever tried lavendar actually. I planted a lot of herbs for cooking, but maybe I didn't start lavendar, though I feel like I may have, in St. Johns maybe. If so, it was from seed. I know positively that I started echinacea and had those flowers. So it's new I guess, to try lavendar. My french lavendar looks very good. I got it as a start already though so it was doing okay. I have noticed a couple of lavendar-looking plants in the wrong place, and maybe it's possible some of the lavendar high-tailed to other sections rather than the border. It was night and raining when I first seeded it, so maybe the rain or wind somehow blew it. I don't know. But I think it should have come up awhile ago, I think, so I tried reseeding all the same.
I might wait a week or two while I see what happens if I scarify the lavendar in water indoors. Maybe because the soil is so clay-like, it needs 'something' usually, like, more acidic? To naturally have lavendar germinate I mean. I used a tiny bit of miracle potting soil (organic) to help it with the start, but this also made my planting and their location stand out to any saboteur. The spots where the lavendar was planted stood out like little darker round spots along the border. But maybe too, that potting soil was just still too alkaline.
Everything else came up, even the carrots that I couldn't see for weeks. It's just the lavendar and then I think either my cauliflower or broccoli was heisted. They were both there and I could tell there were two different plants, and now one of them is gone.
The lavendar seed does seem to have a very hard hull (exterior). It reminds me of the milk thistle seed, with the lavendar being much smaller and shiny.
It says the lavendar likes gritty too, and there wasn't much grit. I think germination would have more to do with PH balance of alkaline and acidic, but also, the clay doesn't help too much and maybe the little bit of potting soil, which was sort of fluffy and lighter, either wasn't enough, and they wanted more of that, of they wanted some gritty texture.
I'm still interested in the lavendar because I know it works with deer. I put one little started-already pot of french lavendar out and the deer never went back for more. So I am sure it will be good to figure out how to get my English lavendar to start too, and keep them out when the plants are bigger and look more enticing. The onion helps right now bc I think the deer see green and the onion spires are tallest and over the green leaf stuff, so it tricks the deer into thinking it all tastes like chives, and the scent of the Corsica mint really works. I think marigolds are fantastic for aphids and slugs.
I found a huge ball (larger than golf ball size) of a spider nest near the garden and I'm leaving it for now. They might be good-for-the-garden spiders, so I have to wait and see.
Just looked at lavendar again. I think too, all the lit says to plant right after last frost and I didn't plant until a month later so maybe they need a cold start. And then it says they don't keep long and to use within 2 weeks. I might try refrigeration start, scarifying start, and sprout as normal in water start. What else? apple cider vinegar start? there's no sand here except at the beach...start? sand isn't going to germinate them or convince the hull to be penetrated and then produce a growth. I guess I could medicate them. Just kidding.
But I have some seaweed and lots of vitamins and collodoil silver and all kinds of "stuff". Tea might work. Maybe our leetle english lavies need a spot o tea.
I think the seeds look fine. I mean, they look healthy. It's probably that I started them late in the year. I thought about waiting with the second packet I bought, and starting that one next Spring at a better time, but I opened it and have tried other things. I guess I'll have to use extraordinary methods at this point.
I had hydrochloric acid come to mind and it looks like some chemists have had success with this.
Have a look-see!
http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19910304698.html;jsessionid=1FD73B625345FEB9B05C7CAA981A4718
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