Spring into action

Spring is a key time for all kinds of crucial garden jobs like pruning and preventative slug measures,

-  Toby

NEVER mind April showers - with so many gardening possibilities and so few hours in the day, April FOMO (fear of missing out) is my main concern! That's why I prioritise the gardening jobs that make the biggest difference, and leave the rest to mañana.

Sowing seeds is top of my list of April jobs. However, these new plants would soon come to a chewed and sticky end if I didn't reduce the resident slug and snail population at the same time.

When I first started gardening, molluscs were given no quarter. The aim was to poison, squash or throw them all over the garden fence. But the thinking has changed - not only is slug and snail extermination impossible (as neighbours throw them back), but it's also undesirable.

Slugs and snails are part of the food chain, and without them predatory birds, frogs and ground beetle numbers plummet. And once they're out of the picture, mollusc numbers spiral out of control.

"The trick is to be strategic"