With Britain basking in truly glorious warmth and sunshine this weekend, a full day down at the London Vegetable Garden allotment was inevitable – and much needed as it transpired. Whilst the Concrete Jungle is full of fag-ends, litter and pollution, the real jungle of an urban allotment is teeming with all sorts of hazards – hazards that like to eat!
As you can see from the pictures above (you can enlarge them by clicking on them), my plants have all been visited by mollusc menaces this week, including some baby runner bean shoots that have just sprouted. This situation clearly needs to be dealt with (especially once I start growing salad leaves!), so I set to and headed back to the local garden centre to see what I could pick up.
In the garden shop, there was a wide range of slug pellets; however, I am keen to keep the London Vegetable Garden organic and chemical-free. Every week, I'm still visited by the robin who picks off the worms I dig up, so I'm keen to avoid harming him and others like him. Mind you, come back and see how I feel when they're pecking up all of my strawberries!
I ended up purchasing some netting and erecting this around one of my raised beds to start off with:
I'm not sure how much of a deterrent this will prove to be, but for the while, it's a start. I've posted a question about slugs on the Urban Gardeners website, so I'm hoping to pool knowledge from there – and here – that will help me defeat these perennial pests! My girlfriend has said that eggshells are supposed to be a good deterrent, as is salt – has anyone had experience of these, or indeed, anything else that may help?
I look forward to hearing your tips!
Do you have any tips on beating slugs organically? Please leave your comments on this blog post, or alternatively, in the forum on the Urban Gardeners website – a new social network for urban gardeners to come together and share tips, advice and support.
As you can see from the pictures above (you can enlarge them by clicking on them), my plants have all been visited by mollusc menaces this week, including some baby runner bean shoots that have just sprouted. This situation clearly needs to be dealt with (especially once I start growing salad leaves!), so I set to and headed back to the local garden centre to see what I could pick up.In the garden shop, there was a wide range of slug pellets; however, I am keen to keep the London Vegetable Garden organic and chemical-free. Every week, I'm still visited by the robin who picks off the worms I dig up, so I'm keen to avoid harming him and others like him. Mind you, come back and see how I feel when they're pecking up all of my strawberries!
I ended up purchasing some netting and erecting this around one of my raised beds to start off with:
I'm not sure how much of a deterrent this will prove to be, but for the while, it's a start. I've posted a question about slugs on the Urban Gardeners website, so I'm hoping to pool knowledge from there – and here – that will help me defeat these perennial pests! My girlfriend has said that eggshells are supposed to be a good deterrent, as is salt – has anyone had experience of these, or indeed, anything else that may help?I look forward to hearing your tips!
Do you have any tips on beating slugs organically? Please leave your comments on this blog post, or alternatively, in the forum on the Urban Gardeners website – a new social network for urban gardeners to come together and share tips, advice and support.
I found none of the eggshells or salt method to work , however I have found that copper wire DOES! I got some cheap / cast of wiring stripped out the copper and tacked that to the raised beds ! no slugs
ReplyDeleteI also had sunk some cut down pringle tubes and filled with some cheap tescos beer outside the beds and that works as a great trap as long as you dont mind emptying it out!
netting is good for butterflys , usless against slugs and snails