Putting garlic in some of your plant water can help protect some of your most vulnerable seedlings and plants from some unwelcome guests who are known to enjoy chowing down on them
Garlic water might be the solution for some unwelcome guests in your garden this summer, according to experts.
Anyone who has ever grown their own veggies – or tried to include the majestic Delphinium in their garden – will know that slugs can be more than a bit of a pain. Certain greenery, particularly seedlings, is to a slug the most delicious meal imaginable and they simply won’t hesitate from tucking in.
While it can be frustrating to go outside in the morning and see some major holes in your beloved plants – or worse, find them practically destroyed, slugs are not actually termed as pests.
This is because they do play a really important role in the ecosystem, and particularly as food for birds, they’re essential. This is why gardeners across the UK are urged not to use things like slug pellets and decimate the population in their green space.
It can be something of a balancing act: protecting your new growth, but also letting slugs exist in your garden too. Short of pulling each and every one of the insects off your most vulnerable plants on a rainy evening, it can feel like there are few options.
This is where garlic water comes in – adding this tool to your arsenal will seriously put off slugs from making their way over your most prized plants.
The best part is this will only cost you the price of a garlic bulb, which is normally between 20 and 30 pence at your local supermarket. Many experts recommend this gardening hack, which as another bonus also means avoiding introducing harsh pesticides into the ecosystem of your garden.
However, bear in mind that you should use it sparingly, and only use garlic in the water you will be giving to your most vulnerable thirsty plants – it shouldn’t be used throughout the garden indiscriminately, just on young plants, and those with a tender stem.
There are a couple of expert-recommended ways you can make your garlic water. Gardener’s World advises you pop one litre of water into a pan and bring it to the boil, adding a bulb of garlic and boiling until it’s soft. If you want to make more of the solution, you can, but go by the rule of one bulb per litre – so if you’re using three litres of water, three bulbs of garlic.
Then they advise you take two tablespoons of the solution and dilute into five litres of normal water.
Botanist James Wong, writing for The Guardian, recommends a different approach, instead blending a bulb of garlic with one litre of water and then leaving it to soak for at least ten minutes.
He explains that Allicin, a compound in garlic, is what puts off slugs, and leaving the blending mixture to soak allows “for the chemical reaction that creates allicin to complete.” Once it has soaked, you should then strain the liquid, before using it to water your plants – when James uses this approach, he doesn’t dilute it any further, instead spraying it straight on as is.
Aim to do your watering with this solution in the evening, and if you have a real trouble spot for slugs, do so “liberally”, James advises.
However, Gardener’s World you should use this solution after rainfall, or generally around once a week.