I beg your garden

This garden update is brought to you by the letter "S" — strawberries and slugs. But first, the Samurai toad lily that survived the latter …

Rain showers brought slews of slugs to my innocent garden early in the month. The slimy suckers ravaged my newly planted hostas, solomon's seal and toad lilies. They even made it to the pepper plants in the
Earth Box.

But I tried a trick I read online. I gave the freeloaders something they craved even more — beer. They slithered into the Dixie cups of yeasty liquid and met their drowny death. While the shade garden suffered a little, another first-timer plant was fruitful.

I love my little strawberry plant. It might never give me the same yield of a 99-cent carton but it's just so gratifying to watch them grow. The neighborhood birds aren't pecking at the plant yet. The pinwheel and fake snake are doing their jobs.

Here are some more of my favorite amateur garden photos from June:

Hot pink spirea

Seeds on the tall tiger lilies


Emerald Gem hosta in bloom


My favorite "touch me" plant — Lamb's Ear


Asiatic tiger lilies from our wedding day way back when

The veggies aren't ripe for pickin' yet but some are starting to show:

Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes


Pimento Elite sweet pepper


Teeny-tiny, prickly cucumbers


Beefmaster tomatoes

But the herbs have been plentiful. I've clipped the basil for a breadsticks recipe, peppermint in iced tea, cilantro for a butter recipe and taco night, and parsley for the bunny.

Cilantro makes the transition to coriander

Basil from seed, go me!

My last photo isn't a beauty but it might be someday — and it's another "S". I think the birds shook some sunflower seeds into some super fertile soil under the birdfeeder. This never happened when the feeder was in the backyard.