Goodbye to gastropods

Val considers the best ways to combat slugs and snails

- Val Bourne

LAST week, I wrote about slugs and the dangers of using slug bait, because it killed all your slugs whether good, bad or ugly. If I have a slug problem, I use a hands-on approach and arm myself with gardening gloves (those I can feel through), plus a torch and a jam jar. I make sure that I’m wearing something heavy on my feet, if you get my gist, and off I go, just as it’s getting dark. If that seems a strange time to be gardening… well, the bad slugs are just like dirty old men. They come out at night and prey on the young. That’s young plants, by the way!

Emerging runner beans are very vulnerable to slug damage, and I solve this problem by planting tempting slug friendly lettuces and equally tempting tall, single French marigolds such as ‘Burning Embers’. Hopefully, these decoy plants distract any slugs from munching my bean tips. I get to pick leaves from ‘Salad Bowl’ and small hearting lettuces such as ‘Little Gem’, while the beans (hopefully) scale the poles on my tripods. It’s too windy for rows here.