Welcome back! Have you been keeping your plants fresh and in shape with a bit of pruning and deadheading? Well now that they’re all trimmed and in-shape, it’s time to look at those backyard bugs that threaten the health of your plants.
Slugs and snails.
They come out in spring and summer every year, wreaking havoc in their wake. These pests are nocturnal, which means that they are active during the night. This is the best time to remove them from the garden, while they’re out on a mission to eat all of your plants.
There are many ways of getting rid of slugs, but the simplest is just to pick them up, pop them in a jar and then add water to drown them. Alternatively, if you are currently or plan on renovating your garden area, raised beds won’t go amiss in preventing the slugs from getting in. For the raised beds the rougher the wood the better, as the roughness of the wood is what dissuades the snails from climbing up.
So, despite your best effort there are still some plants, in part or whole, lost to the slimy abyss. All hope is not lost. Dig the plant up and replace it somewhere safe for a few weeks, bedding plants are pretty resilient and will have shown considerable regrowth by then.
If you want to save yourself the trouble of having to deal with slugs and snails, there are plants that the slimy creatures do not have an affinity for. Plants that have aromatic flowers and tough woody stems are what you should be planting in this case. Common plants in this category are those like lavender, rosemary, sage, or any of the aromatic geraniums.
Willie the Worm
