If you’re constantly dismayed by your beautiful garden being destroyed by the pests that are slugs and snails, the best idea might be to think about planting some crops that aren’t ‘slug-friendly’.
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You may have to give up your usual lettuces, as these are nectar to slugs, and instead go for some less conventional crops, such as American cranberries, which grow well if your soil is naturally damp and acidic. You can use the fruits to make your own cranberry sauce for Christmas, and they’re packed with anti-oxidants.
Another fruit that’s not desired by molluscs is the Nepalese raspberry, a plant best suited to growing in the shade of trees or buildings, and the mock strawberry. The latter is particularly suited to being in salads.
If you’re looking for decorative plants to put off slugs, you’re best aiming for something with a stronger scent, such as lavender. While the smells are pleasing to human visitors in a garden, for slugs it’s similar to drinking perfume, so they’ll keep well away.
To protect plants you have that slugs have taken a fancy to, there are a myriad of solutions from putting down glasses of beer, spraying the offending critters with coffee, or placing coins around (slugs feel a shock when they touch the metal).
If you’re looking for something more humane, you might want to try sacrificing a few lettuces or hostas to the slugs, so that they should all keep in one place and not bother any other plants. Or encourage frogs and toads into your garden, which will gobble the slugs down. Make sure to only water your garden in the morning: otherwise the tracks of water will be like night-time slug roads across your garden. And that’s something nobody wants.
Emily Bancroft
Tagged in Garden