Things seem to be happening in the garden despite our extra cold, extra wet, extra gross weather. These plants have more fortitude than me.

The sun poked its head out today though and I a quick maintenance run in the backyard creek area. I swept the creek of organic debris (literally) and pulled a few weeds.

I was excited to see a number of lupines popping up. The one pictured is probably 2 years old. Looking closely you can see the tender leaves chewed back to nubbins. Unfortunately the resident slugs love them so I scattered some (pet-friendly) slug bait around. I always have a tinge of guilt doing that because I don’t really know how safe it is, especially for birds. But we are literally infested with slugs, and the alternatives don’t seem to work well for me. How do you keep slugs at bay?

Lupines are popping up! I’ve been gathering seeds from the pods of existing plants and sowing them in the fall.

This is the best tool I have at the moment for cleaning out the creek.