Environmentally-friendly slug and snail deterrents

If like me you have an abundance of snails (and slugs), then you will have probably experienced that 'Aaaaarrrghhh!' moment when you take a tour of the garden and see the delphiniums/hosta/iris/bean plants that you so loving nurtured from seed having been reduced to stumps overnight by those pesky blighters.

If also (like me) you don't relish the idea of serving them up with garlic butter as a way to control their numbers, but also hate slug pellets that are bad for the environment, the soil, pets, wildlife, food crops, in fact bad all round then you will have doubtless looked for an alternative that doesn't leave agonised gastropod corpses scattered around your patio like an invertebrate graveyard.

I started off by trying organically approved 'Growing Success' Advanced Slug killer, but its messy, unsightly and takes re-application.

Copper to the rescue! I took the plunge and bought some copper Slug Rings online, which despite the initial financial outlay end up as being good value for money. I've protected my irises, hosta and delphiniums with these. Success!!

Copper Slug Ring protecting a bearded iris from slugs and snails

As you can see from the photo after a year or so the copper dulls and ends up blending in with the soil. Just make sure there are no plants around that can act as ladders to allow the smarter slugs to valut the copper ring.

Taking it one step further, if you have any tasty specimens in pots, you can easily protect them with copper tape. You can buy Vitax Copper Tape online. I'd keep the pots on a tray or paving as those earthbound slugs can still get up inside through the holes at the bottom.

Vitax copper slug tape

Here you can see it guarding a physalis (although something has still managed to have a nibble).

What I love most about these ideas is that its a one-off set up - no more shaking those slug pellets every couple of weeks - and no slug deaths on your hands!

Plant of the week - white bearded iris

This majestic bearded iris was given to me by my mother about 4 years ago. I'd never grown irises before so was surprised to learn how tasty slugs and snails find them!

White flag iris

The blooms really are stunning, with delicate papery white petals on a stem 2 feet high. Each flower-bearing stem has about four blooms, they are each only in their prime for a couple of days before they wither and its neighbour comes into its own.

They aren't without problems, slugs and snails (a real pest in my garden) love the sword-like leaves and will eat the whole lot if they aren't protected. I use copper rings to protect my vulnerable plants as its more effective, more environmentally-friendly and in fact less effort than slug pellets, although the initial cost may be off-putting, the rings last for years. The tall stems are also at the mercy of heavy rain and wind, but I may not have planted the rhizome deep enough to make them stable.

Last year I managed to divide the one plant into two, one of which I planted in an open space away from other plants of a similar height (the one in the photo) and one among the delphiniums and poppies, which was a total mistake as the slugs used those plants as ladders to hop over the copper ring and reduce the iris to a stump. You live, plant and learn.

Plant of the week - Poppy 'Coral Reef' (Papaver orientale)

There was no contest for the entry for plant of the week this week. I had to choose these beautiful and delicately coloured poppies because they are so magnificent and because their glory is so short lived.

Poppy 'Coral Reef' (Papaver orientale)

Their colour is so clean and clear while they are opening as you can see from the photo above. The delicate petals are like ruffled silk and tissue thin - at this stage their colour is at its most intense.

Poppy 'Coral Reef' (Papaver orientale)

The point at which they open to reveal the magnificent deep crimson markings inside, the petals are already fading in intensity but the massive blooms open to about 5 inches across. Sadly the weight of the bloom combined with the English rain and wind does mean the plants can get flattened.

Poppy 'Coral Reef' (Papaver orientale) - seed head

Finally when the petals drop (sometimes in a matter of a few days), the emerging seed pod is revealed, topped with radiating sweeps of velvety purple and trimmed with intense purple stamens. This I think is even more beautiful than the bloom itself.

I bough a packet of seeds from Thompson & Morgan two years ago, and in their second year, the plants are really well established and have numerous blooms, many more than compared to last year.

Despite their glory being short lived, I would be without them in my garden now...

Garden snapshot - June 2013

Each month I'll be taking a snapshot photo of the garden from the same angle to show what in foliage and in bloom throughout each month. Part experiment and part my own interest.

Garden - 14th June 2013

Plant of the week (belated) - Poached Egg Plant (Limnanthes douglasii)

A little belated, but plant of the week for week ending 14th June 2013 is the humble poached egg plant. This little self-seeder appears everywhere in the garden now and I usually leave it to its own business. It seems to prefer drier stonier places in the garden where other plants find it hard to survive, like gravel borders and has even colonised and survived uncared for in the dry gravel floor of the greenhouse.

Poached Egg Plant (Limnanthes douglasii)

It's a modest little plant but bees love the cheerful yellow and white flowers, which makes it a hit in my garden.

I got a single seed packet from Thompson & Morgan a couple of years ago, but never had to buy seeds again as its now established itself in the garden without any additional help!

Plant of the Week - Purple Sprouting Broccoli

A little unusual perhaps, as the broccoli season is now well and truly over for us. However we couldn't keep up with the amounts of broccoli being produced by a mere 6 plants in the raised vegetable bed, and eventually we had to admit defeat and stop having broccoli with (almost) every meal.

The end result of course was that the broccoli started to flower and actually produced an amazing show of yellow blooms that the bees were going crazy for.

Purple sprouting broccoli in flower

Growing the broccoli from seed to cropping was a lengthy affair lasting from June 2012 with the first broccoli heads being harvested in February this year. However the flavour and tenderness of the heads was unlike any shop-bought broccoli I had ever had, so I would highly recommend trying it if you have enough space.

The seeds were bought from Thompson and Morgan.