17 May 2025
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This year has been super challenging in lots of way . I retrieve it ’s important to acknowledge this because if nothing else , it helps us rent off a picayune ‘ steam ’ . The so - far soggy summertime and soft , sozzled winter has resulted in a smashing jeopardy of pest and disease for gardeners . More gadfly have been able to overwinter , reproduce and play havoc in stipulation that are eminently favourable for them . Although some works have savor the rain , many others have not and annual have been slower to grow and some perchance sabotage , making them more susceptible to lash out .
In July , I gave some talking at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Festival on climate modification gardening and raw plague control , and I was inundated with interrogative sentence about clout . I spoke to gardeners absolutely distraught at the damage done to their plants this twelvemonth , desperate for ideas to help keep slug and snail numbers in hindrance . So as Ruth Hayes outlines lots of excellent testimonial for dispense with pestilence and disease overall on Page 8 , I ’m going to indite about what to do about clout .
While every garden is different and solutions therefore demand to be tailored to private develop conditions , here are some general theme to facilitate get by with this yr ’s over abundant plant life muncher .
Quick first actions
seek and calculate out where they are coming from
Could it be that a leaven bed has begin to break down and become a family for bullet ? Are they emerging from nearby undergrowth , or is it plant foliage they are shroud under ? If you have woodchip pathway , these can also be an attractive concealment priming coat . Plastic pots , or item such as compost bags left on the soil can allow for tax shelter . get laid where they are serve you figure out what to do .
move out as many as you could
Find out where your slugs are coming from
reduce numbers pool is an all-important start if you have an overburden of slug . Even with lots of lifelike predators around the garden , when slug numbers become out of balance interposition is needed to protect your plants . In many years you may not require to intervene , but 2024 has been something else and slug numbers have been so much higher that garden birds , amphibians etc may simply struggle to keep up .
Consider put down a board of wood on the soil , or a fictile bag with a brick on top , to encourage slugs to shelter underneath so you’re able to plainly plunk it up and bank the bullet elsewhere .
interrupt their concealment places
Kim Removing (and harvesting) some lower rocket and lettuce leaves to search for excess slugs at the community garden she manages
Removing some of your ground cover can help oneself , if you know they are residing there . You do n’t want to leave the soil bare where possible and can still have longer grassed areas of lawn , but if you have a great punch issue then consider removing some of this home ground if it is nearer to plants which are vulnerable to approach .
For example , aim off some of the downcast leaves of plant on the vegetable plot of ground can reveal lick hiding below , making them easier to pick up and remove . Chives can double up as an attractive ‘ five star slug hotel ’ , so regard cutting the plant right back to the stem , giving a swift eviction notification to any ‘ invitee ’ residing within . The chives will chop-chop grow back and produce endearing fresh stem .
make a first line of defense
Coffee grounds used around planting to help deter slugs
Once number have been reduced there are many ways to further shore up up defense against succeeding attempt . This could mean move pots higher up and out of the manner , using bull slug rings , or standardised measures . On the priming coat , do work with what you feel comfortable with and have to pass . Some gardeners use beer traps , others get coffee grounds sprinkled around works as a near preventive measure , others like using egg shell ( which are also good for the soil ) . There are all sorting of constitutive products available to buy , but in person I would recommend sample , where potential , to work with what you already have and outwit the slugs with that .
Longer condition solutions
Thinking ahead , there are several agency to aid make it operose for slug figure to proliferate . Do remember this class is particularly tricky , but all of these suggestions are contrive to assist with innate pest dominance overall so are deserving consider .
Mixed planting makes it harder for pests to find what they are looking for
Only found out firm seedlings
boastful , healthier industrial plant are generally speaking more able to stand off plague . There is no fast fix , but in a sorry bullet class protect seedlings and plant out when they are better able to cope makes sensory faculty . Where infinite allows , pot them on so they grow enceinte before set out .
Make your ground the best it can be
The leopard slug is an enthusiastic garden ally and does eat other slugs
Regenerative practice such as no - digging , mulching and building birthrate in your soil of course will hammer healthier plants overall . It all helps in the conflict against pests and disease . Slow release food can encourage plants to dig that morsel deeper for intellectual nourishment and water and open them with greater resilience as a result .
view more mixed planting
I write in the last issue about the many benefit of a more costless - gamey planting approach with garden truck . Not grow too many of the same type of plants together , where it is easy for so - called pests to find what they are looking for , really does help protect your crops . see surrounding more vulnerable plants with other varieties and mix and match planting as you go . It further avail boost biodiversity and can work on well as part of a rounded approach . For instance , plants such as nasturtium and Allium mature in and around other plants can cark pest and draw their attention away .
Boost natural predator numbers
In an exhaust - and - be - eat garden it is harder for one type of pestilence to proliferate and cause issues . As this year has demonstrated , this does n’t entail you wo n’t ever have issues , but it does help to boost the natural residue in your favour . As well as the obvious slug eaters such as birds , hedgehogs and amphibian , live that ground beetles , spiders and even the Panthera pardus slug are among the many creatures that can keep slug numbers down . Eat out to facilitate out , if you will !
The more you may boost biodiversity , the more you may build a garden full of natural pest patrol allies to the benefit of all , no matter the weather and the up-to-the-minute challenges to arise .
