If you’ve noticed your garden getting overrun by slugs looking to chew through your plants, then Monty Don has provided one simple tip to keep them at bay for good
If you’ve noticed your garden becoming overrun by greedy slugs, then gardening expert and BBC presenter Monty Don has one fool proof way to banish them for good.
Spring has finally arrived, which means longer days, warmer weather and more sunshine. It’s also the time of year when you’ll begin to see many of your garden plants bloom. However, this means you have to be careful that they don’t get nibbled away by slugs.
Slugs are omnivorous and love to gnaw away at all sorts of highly unpleasant things, from dead animals to human waste. Unfortunately for your garden, they also enjoy chowing down on many different kinds of fruits, veg and flowers.
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Some of their favourite treats include strawberries, cauliflower and broccoli. This can be a nuisance for those looking to cultivate their fruit and veg plots, as they are magnets for the slimy molluscs.
Hosta plants are also a slug favourite, with their bountiful rich foliage and sweet-scented summer flowers. They are also well-suited to growing in Britain as they enjoy shady spots and moist soil.
More than just ruining your foliage, slugs can also bring with them a range of diseases. This includes the terrifying rat lungworm.
Rat lungworm is a type of parasite that can exist in slugs. If accidentally ingested, it can cause serious health issues for humans, including brain inflammation.
Unfortunately, the problem with using slug pellets or other chemicals to get rid of them is that these can be incredibly damaging to the environment. You also run the risk of harming other animals.
So, if you’re concerned about slugs in your garden, there is a more sustainable option. According to Monty, the best way to stop them from taking over your garden is to avoid overfeeding your plants.
In his blog, he writes: “Do not feed plants any more than is absolutely necessary and always feed the soil not the plant. This will avoid a spurt of soft, sappy growth that slugs love.”
He says that you should grow your plants as “hard” as possible, without the need of too much TLC. Although, he also warns not to stress them with sudden temperature or environmental changes.
Equally, slugs have many natural predators, which will help reduce their numbers. These include frogs, thrushes, hedgehogs and shrews.
Monty encourages gardeners to invite a wide range of predators to their gardens. In order to do this, you need to have a high amount of natural cover as well as “a degree of tolerance for collateral damage.”