By Christine Swan
I have a recently acquired greenhouse and have to confess that it has reignited my love of growing plants from seed, potting on and nurturing beautiful plants. I have a wonderful collection of fuchsias from my late parents’ garden and their beloved Agapanthus plants brought from a holiday in Madeira. I spend happy hours pottering about and find gardening a relaxing and absorbing way to spend an hour or two.
I purchased some plug plants to kick start my summer display aspirations. I chose favourites including a large number of baby sweet pea plants. As soon as they arrived, I potted them all and was very happy with my work. I walked back to the house with grubby fingernails and a relaxed demeanour. The following morning, I was shocked and irritated to find that some of my new plants had been eaten back to just bare stems, and the rest were covered in silvery tracks indicating the presence of a slimy enemy, or rather, a whole legion of them.
The leopard slug – my nemesis By Michal Maňas – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7984616
Let battle commence. Moving pots about, I removed the slugs and snails that I could see and soon lost count after twenty. I felt convinced that I had removed them all and was happy with my efforts and thought that I had definitely gained an early win.
However, my joy was short lived when I returned from my Kung Fu class and noticed some tracks on the greenhouse windows – surely these were leftovers from before before my slug-picking? They must be, mustn’t they? I shrugged my shoulders and chose to ignore them.
When I ventured out the next day, I found even more of my sweet peas had been devoured. Surely this couldn’t be? Where were these new slugs? The opening salvos may have been impressive but the enemy was still persistently holding on to territory. I decided that I needed a new and more effective strategy.
The cacti and succulents are pretty safe from attack
I don’t use chemicals. I won’t use chemicals. Our garden is a haven for wildlife including mammals and birds. I’ll happily tolerate insects and other pests to support the food chain and to rest assured that anything that I grow is as natural and as pure as it can possibly be. As Joni said: “Give me spots on my apples but leave me the birds and the bees.” Although I don’t actually eat sweet peas, I’m not keen on anything else eating them either – but I don’t object to the eaters becoming the eaten. Slugs are food for birds so I put them onto the wild patch, close to the greenhouse where they have a chance, but that chance has limits.
I have become just a little obsessed with my personal war on slugs. I have been conducting night time raids on my way back from Kung Fu and have discovered the nature of my foe. Larger specimens lurk at ground level, and slide around the smooth metal perimeter of the greenhouse. I deployed two short bamboo canes as giant chopsticks to pick up the slugs and move them onto the wild patch, while also juggling my phone torch to see what I was doing. Ta, ta, and good luck slug! I discovered some enormous leopard slugs using the chopstick method and felt a sense of smugness when I headed back up the garden having removed three more molluscan menacing munchers in my quest to save my seedlings.
UK slugs of all shapes and sizes – By Adams, Lionel Ernest (1854–1945) – Adams, L.E. 1896. The collector’s manual of British land and freshwater shells. Second Edition. Taylor, Leeds. File is from http://delta-intkey.com/britmo/images/adams01.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10578868
I considered how they came to be there in the first place. Until the arrival of the sweet peas, I was unaware of any other of my plants having been eaten. I believe that the culprits were the huge fuchsia pots. The compost bins are writhing with slugs and worms and although I can’t remember using some of this compost in the large pots, I could have. If I had, I would have inadvertently populated the place with slugs and was therefore responsible for the ensuing botanic carnage.
During the recent sunny days, the greenhouse seemed safe and protected, but I was fooled again. I discovered their hiding places. Some pots of larger plants, stay damp for longer and the base of the pot is the most moist. When I looked underneath some of the pots, I discovered that slugs were concealed in recesses aligned with the pot’s drainage holes, creating a foxhole for a slug to sleep away the daylight hours. Or not. Using a woody stem from one of last year’s perennials, I winkled out these slimy interlopers, and sent them into retreat with the other former evictees.
Fuchsias and nerines in the greenhouse last autumn
My persistence has paid off. The numbers are decreasing day by day – just four yesterday. One sweet pea pot is in a dreadfully bedraggled state, but the rest seem to be recovering. There are some plants that slugs don’t seem to like at all – including the fuchsias fortunately. I am now even investigating an additional brush seal for the door to increase defences. I am beginning to wonder if I am becoming a little bit obsessed. As I type this, I am resisting the urge to trek down the garden with my torch to see if I can catch any more. There can be no rest until the war on slugs is won and victory secured.
Awful Rigours and Wretched Pay 
