Published on 12, July, 2020
I’m at war.
I’ve been doing some gardening. My mental health team suggested it last year because, and I quote, “it’s a no stress hobby that will get you outside in the fresh air and it’ll be good for me”. They were right about the fresh air, that can’t be denied. And I was feeling better with no stress until-they came. I am of course referring to the biggest pest in anyone’s garden: snails and slugs!
Crime scene photo #6.
Seemingly overnight snails and slugs have ransacked my garden and are terrorising my flowers and strawberries. I attempted to garden last year, wanted to grow some strawberries as they’re my fav to eat and they’re also healthy. I follow this guide sheet on healthy eating as I’ve got IBS and certain foods, generally the unhealthy ones-set off digestive upset for me.
So I’m trying to do healthy eating to better manage and prevent these issues.
But even with the healthy fresh summer air the stress is mounting up! Despite my best efforts these slugs have launched a devastating attack. Strawberries are at risk, some have been eaten whole or mutilated in severe cowardly attacks. These cowardice slugs dare not strike during the day-they only come out at night when I’m asleep, too afraid to face me honourably during the day.
Don't let this cuteness fool you!
Lol! Ok it's not quite that bad but seriously is there any advice on how to best deal with these little slugs? I don’t want to get any poison pellets as I live on a mountain in a rural area and the birds might eat them, I also despite myself don’t like the idea of hurting the slugs. But I also do get extremely stressed when my strawberries are looking nearly ready for picking and then a day later they’ve been devoured. All my hard work wasted.
It’s annoying but I do like the challenge lol-although it’s embarrassing that I’m being outwitted by a slug! Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions on how to deal with these garden pests are more than welcome...
Good luck, they eat my geraniums regularly, it's getting to the stage there are hardly any leaves I can use to make cuttings for next year.
Someone also recommended coffee grounds, as the texture makes it hard for the slimies to slime their way over... but I have never tried it. In case you use coffee more often than eggs....
There are natural biological ways to deal with slugs, but you have to use them earlier in the year, about March time, they're a parasitic wasp that lay their eggs in the slugs, it should all help the general biodiversity of your garden.
I use a lot of companion plants, it sounds daft, but plants have friends with benefits! I plant nastursiums with my beans or anythig else vulnerable to black fly, if nastursiums are on the menu black fly will choose them over almost anything else, you may get a few on your beans but not nearly so many, your nastursium will be covered and leaves picked off and squashed. Marigolds when planted alongside tomatoes release some kind of chemical that helps tomatoes, choose the open flowered ones like calendula marigolds as they will help polinators, some of are predatory, such as hover flies. They are territorial and will claim a bush or a section of plants as theirs and protect them, they will fly up and give you a good eyeball to see what you are. Any member of the onion family will help roses, they help keep black fly away because of their scent, I use chives among my roses, the flowers look really pretty and of course you can eat them..
I try and make my garden a big restaurant so that everything gets somebody/thing to eat, even me! Planting everything together and not having a veg bed and a ornamental bed, but mixing the two up so you have flowers, veg, fruit and herbs all growing together means you have a much higher selection of bugs and therefore greater biodiversity. I leave a patch of nettles behind the greenhouse for moths, some species lay their eggs on them and moths are important, they're the night shift polinators. Other plants for polinators include lavender, budliea, all the smelly herbs and open faced flowers so as the bees and others can get into the flower.
TheCatWoman,
That sounds like an amazing garden for many reasons. I love visiting gardens but wouldn't be able to have one because of allergies and due to the fact I live in a flat and don't like having plants in pots as I like them to be able to spread their roots and be free. :-)
I've got a few allgergies to plants, so I just dont' grow them, like dahlias, xanths, jasmine and stocks, but theres plenty of plants you can grow that won't irratate you, could you get a share in an allotment?