a snail in the rosemary.

Fortunately, snails don't like rosemary. Neither do earwigs. But they like squash plants...and cucumber plants...and tender little seedlings...and soft leaf herbs like parsley and basil.

Maybe this little metal snail will work like a scarecrow...to scare off the real snails...and maybe the slugs, too. You think?

Well, just in case it doesn't...I scattered some Diatomaceous Earth around the innocent garden plants and as it draws closer to the time my seedlings should be popping up (I'll start checking in 5 days...I planted some beans, chives and sunflowers yesterday...definitely vulnerable) I'll scatter some more.

Diatomaceous Earth works like a dream. It deters snails, slugs, earwigs, roaches, ants...and it's organic...which I love. Because I don't want to cover my fresh, organic, homegrown food with poison. If I wanted my food covered in poison I could save myself some work and just go buy produce at the grocery store.

Oh...and another thing about Diatomaceous Earth, it's also good to scatter in your chicken bedding. It will help to deter those horrid, disgusting, nasty pesky flies.

And guess what? Chris got bit by the garden bug too (that bug is welcome in the garden!) and decided to plant a couple of mounds of cantaloupe seeds. We love cantaloupe. Well, Seth doesn't love cantaloupe. He doesn't even like it. But the rest of us do...so majority rules. And I have to say there is nothing like a fresh, homegrown cantaloupe. We've never grown them before...I've been told they're tricky and picky about their soil. But we went for it anyway...you'll never know until you try. If it doesn't work we'll just continue to buy them at Aliki's, our local fruit stand...they grow a delicious cantaloupe.

Today I need to plant some lettuce (it never got done yesterday) and maybe more beans. I also need to get the herbs we purchased over the weekend into the ground. And then I think we're done for a while. After that it'll just be about the maintenance, and watering and then...the harvesting and eating!