The War On Molluscs

Well the bran was rubbish. I thought they were giving it a wide berth, but two of the little buggers made it across (I was sitting out watching them with a torch). So I had to kill them. I thoroughly sluiced through the Magnolia and Hamamelis this afternoon, and as all the invertebrates came to the surface (I didn't know woodlice could swim!) I picked off the slugs, chucked them in a pot and threw table salt on them. I felt a tiny bit bad watching them writhe in agony before dying in a mound of froth, but then they were trying to eat my plants.



So I'm trying a different tactic. Tesco have loads of organic pest control stuff, so I thought I'd try their organic bull semen slug barrier gel. Seriously, the stuff looks gross. I don't know what's in it, but I bet bovine ejaculate figured in its manufacture somewhere.



So that's round the base of the Magnolia, Hamamelis, Camellia and Asplenium scolopendrium, the only ones that seem to have been at all nibbled. A big dollop right round the base of each one. And if I find any live slugs, they'll either get chucked in the compost heap (if I'm feeling benevolent) or given a salt bath (if I'm not).



I potted up the Gunnera I swapped on Thursday, fed all the plants (organic N:P:K 5:2:5 fertiliser and a good helping of PalmBooster), sowed the five sunflower seeds from the Gardeners' World seed trial I'm doing. And I took a load of photos of my plants from odd angles. I'll share some of these over the next week.