2025 so far..

Slugs… since May I have been stalking out of the house each night in the dark, just before going to bed. Torch in hand and yes…there they all are..sliming and munching away on my newly germinated seed. Ah well. What did I expect? for them to disappear magically, as if some slug catastrophe had occurred? They were out in force last year all right so they were bound to return this, with reinforcements. The vegetable patch is surrounded by an old loose stone wall built about 150 years ago with the local stone – conglomerate. To a slug wanting to start a family this is the ideal place to lay eggs and rear them. Sheltered from predators and a shaded gloomy crevice is the perfect start to a slug’s life. Then at night it’s an easy slither and slide to the delicate, tender and delicious vegetable seedlings. Especially lettuce. The king of foods if you’re a slug.

It is a hopeless task, expecting to deplete the local slug population by picking a paltry few – the ones under my torch radar – each night. There are millions of them. All I can hope to do is slow down the disappearance of the beginnings of a fine crop of lettuce.

I did end up with some lettuce after nightly culls. Ate some and now the prolonged drought with searing heat from the sun bearing down on them has caused them to suffer and respond by bolting. I think I’d do the same.

Over the years I have decided to stick to growing what survives in this hostile garden. Climbing french beans if I can keep the slugs off them in the early days. Courgettes. Leeks and brassicas (if the cabbage whites don’t get their way).

The biggest success this year was strawberries. This was unexpected although I did put some effort into weeding them and gently spreading chicken manure compost from the hens around them in the early days. This year I copied a daughter-in-law’s method of cramming the plants in close together to supress weeds and prevent drying out. They really don’t like drying out. Result was some deliciously fragrant tasting strawberries. Perhaps I will extend the bed next year. The raspberries have suffered from lack of water, they are thirsty plants and prefer the damp and wet climate of Scotland not southern sun and drought.

Slugmageddon

What a year for growing veg! First it rained and the weather refused to warm. Beans started off in the greenhouse where they grew well sulked in the ground next to their poles for weeks. Slowly and reluctantly they crawled up the poles..along with an army of slugs. Slugs have been relentless this year. Eveynight – and it is still worth doing even in September, I pick off slug after slug from lettuces, beans, brassicas (they loved those for some reason this year). Numerous attempts were made to germinate lettuces but failed. I ended up with 3 lettuce plants, cos type. Each night I have been picking off several slugs. They turned their noses up at the beer trap. I pick them (sometimes drag them – I can almost hear them screaming then stamp on them, squishing them on the slabs. Curiously next night these mounds of disemboweled slugs attracts many hungry slugs which seem to swarm around the rotting flesh. Weird.

I love dahlias. In order to see their beautifully vibrant blooms I have to pick slugs off the young shoots everynight. Usually the slugs lose interest when larger tougher leaves form but not this year. They are still at it even on the flowers themselves.

What a year..