Back in the garden again - first time in 2014

So this weekend I managed to get out in the garden at last. First time since November! My attempts at any garden activity had been hampered by three major events:

1. A fantastic holiday in Tobago over Christmas and New Year
2. Minor surgery on my leg which meant I wasn't able to walk for a couple of weeks.
3. The worst wind and rain in the UK I have ever seen - meaning the lawn was just too flooded and muddy to be able to walk on it much.

Fences need repairing, the greenhouse needed glass replacing and the lawn in in some serious need of TLC.

First job of the year was to turn the raised bed over to wild flowers for the year. With the potential that we may be selling up and may not see the whole year out in this garden, the vegetable patch will become a wild area.

Wildflower seed packs - butterfly and bumble bee attractor plants

I bought two packs of wildflower seeds from the RSPB online shop. One pack of butterfly attractor wildflowers and one pack of bumble bee attractor wildflowers. Not the cheapest of seed packs but at least the money goes to a very worthwhile charity, and I love bumble bees.

Hopefully I will get to see some of these flower before we move!

These two packs covered an area about 4 square meters in the raised vegetable patch, minimum effort and maximum insect attractors. Did I mention that I love bumble bees?

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!