As for pests, I was warned about slugs and diseases mostly. I had used some Sluggo early on but other than that didn’t treat with anything. Late in the Summer I did find a black slug on a tomato. I found a few more of the same species and an unknown species of a smaller slug throughout the year. I tried to keep the ground cleaned up to discourage them hanging out. Occasionally I would leave a broccoli leaf on the ground after a watering and come back the next day to remove the few slugs that had gathered under it to keep cool.

There were a few cabbage moths on my broccoli but a once ever each week kept them clean. I was struck by the lack of pests really. I only lost those few broccoli plants to the cabbage maggot early on and the kale had some powdery mildew but that was it.

I noticed a yellow bee on the lavender flowers that I had never come across before. A little digging told me it was a Yellow Fronted Bumble Bee. Their numbers were high which was encouraging. There were honey bees too, great for pollination.

The garden is surrounded by a very tall fence to keep the deer out. They can jump quite high so the fence has to be taller than they can jump or there is no point in having one. All of the fence posts have little bird houses on them. They aren’t active bird houses as wasps kept building nests in them which became problematic. They are just for decoration. The birds still love to sit up on top of them and sing their beautiful songs.

A Western Tiger Swallowtail stayed long enough for me to get some great shots on one Summer visit.

This little Pacific Tree Frog was on the Helpline broccoli. Probably one reason I rarely saw any pests there. He kept turning his back to me when I would try to take his picture. Apparently he is a bit camera shy.

The European Garden Spider featured on this post was fairly common too. I’m sure there were others but it was the only spider I saw in the garden.