Garden warfare

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?

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. :-)

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.

Paige,

Your post and the replies below are hilarious.  I could never kill a living thing intentionally unless someone hurt my daughter but that's another topic completely. :-)

My Granny was (in my opinion) a nasty piece of work.  She used to smash snails in front of my brother and I as kids and it's never left me. I felt ill to the core and she used to use salt for them all too. Mean, just mean.  

It sounds like there are good alternatives to killing them so best of luck! The strawberries look lush, wish I wasn't allergic.

Best of luck with the garden. :-)

No! You don't have to do a single thing after putting it up. It's perfect!

SALT.

*Edit* (Use to create a barrier!)  

Wow! That looks incredible!!! I bet it's fascinating to watch the bees in their habitat like that. Thanks for the suggestion! I love this idea. Does it take much looking after?

Hi Sparkly-nice to meet you! I’m glad my post could make you laugh. My eccentric side burst out this morning! Lol I’m normally a lot more shy and quiet than that. I had a good laugh earlier when I read it again and also read some other people’s funny moments regarding snails.

I’m sorry about your strawberry growing attempt-then again you must be an amazing gardener and done something really special with your strawberries as they grew up through the gaps of your paving slabs! I love it. I do find it really incredible how stuff can grow so randomly like that. Starting to wonder if I should grow my strawberries under our paving slabs, the snails and slugs might not be able to squeeze down there. Do you still grow in your garden? Would you like to take over managing my garden? I have jammy dodgers... 

Thanks for your wishes and luck-I’m going to need all the luck I can get. These garden pests are smarter than people give them credit for! 

Sorry to hear that you were struggling with squirrels and that they got past your defences. They are as crafty as the slugs. A few years ago when my step mum was gardening she had an issue with squirrels coming in and ransacking what she was growing. Thankfully I haven’t had any dealings with squirrels, yet-truth be told the snails and slugs have probably eaten them too. I definitely wouldn’t put it past them. Slowly but surely they’re taking over the whole garden. If I don’t come online one of these days you’ll know I’ve been captured, or worse.

And on that unpleasant note I am going to have my tea. ️

Have a lovely night. X

Thank you spikey, I could see us getting one of those too... 

Paige, I just wanted to say that your post and the humorous way you have expressed yourself caused me to chuckle, as have some of the comments. Thank you! 

Although I am unable to offer any humane methods of ridding your garden of slugs and snails, your post reminded me of an attempt I'd had of growing strawberries several years ago. All was well until the hanging pouch they were growing out of broke. I had forgotten about it until some years later, when I discovered I had strawberries growing up through the gaps between my paving slabs, in a different area of my garden.

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with your garden warfare. I appreciate how frustrating it can be when one has invested time and money on one's garden, only for it to feel like your hard work has been sabotaged. I had a similar issue with squirrels after planting an assortment of bulbs, to the extent that I invested in rolls of steel wire mesh to make squirrel-proof cloches. Somehow, the crafty squirrels still managed to run amok and cause mayhem. 

I thought of something else to get you outside - not to do with strawberries or gastropods...

Get one of these little beauties - a bee hotel. This has bought me a lot of joy. I got one last year and in May it went nuts and is now almost fully booked. The little 'scratches' all over the middle bit are where bees have chewed the wood to make stuff to seal the holes. It may be too late for this year (I dunno) but I hung mine in October and had one or two before it went nuts.

Mark (formerly Spikey) said:

the slugs are still alive after their eviction. That has to be a win.

They also have Community Protection Notices placed on them so they know where they stand (or slither).

Mark (formerly Spikey) said:

Actually, the thing that my wife (I've realized this looks like I'm claiming credit!) has been really successful at with little effort is growing mint. It's fairly useless as a staple food, but it smells nice and you can make tea out of it.

I've got a large trough of lots of different types of mint: eg. (from the top of my head) - peppermint, garden, chocolate, eau de cologne, pineapple etc and every year we have lots of mint moths, which are quite beautiful.

They're getting more and more clever by the day!

The way I see it - the slugs are still alive after their eviction. That has to be a win.

Mark (formerly Spikey) said:

Are you being devious?

I/we are completely innocent of any snail/slug related movement crime.

Honestly ....

I have however seen minature house removal vans in the area loaded up with leaves

I think I may know what you are getting at. Are you being devious?

Thank you - that raised a smile.

The ones in our garden regularly move home.

I won't divulge how they do so, but they tend to end up living elsewhere .... ... they travel ... ...

Wow that’s fascinating! Thanks for sharing this tip. I used to have a dog-I didn’t garden then, my step mum did but we didn’t get slugs then I don’t think and our dog was always leaving her hairs everywhere-so that’s an interesting point. I could never bring myself to get another dog though. OMG bran causes slugs to explode? Though that idea is extremely tempting right now lol I’m not sure I’ve got it in me to do that...she said as she ordered some bran lol!

Thank you for all your tips and tricks everyone. ️ I really do appreciate it! When the mental health team suggested this they failed to mention the war with slugs and snails I would end up in.

This is a serious problem for us garden folk but together we will stop these dangerous greedy beasts!

I’m sorry to hear about your geraniums-garden pests really are a nightmare aren’t they? All that hard work only to be gobbled up by slugs and snails. Coffee grounds? I have some coffee so I’ll use it as well as the egg shells and let you all know which works best. I drink a lot of coffee-too much probably-so I’ll have plenty to spare for the garden. Hopefully it’ll work!