Little Owl and I crossed sodden fields to Toddler Group this morning. I carried her over large stretches where the water was deep enough to engulf her wellies. The long grass looked beautiful delicately peppered with glimmering droplets until I walked through it and the fronts of my jeans were quickly soaked. Once we reached the old railway line Little Owl could run freely, splashing in the puddles to her heart’s content.
All this wet weather has proved ideal for the slugs in our garden. It’s such a hot topic for the nation that it even made it on to the Jeremy Vine show a week or so ago. Our next door neighbour opted for some beer traps in her garden and delighted in telling me the length and girth of the specimens she found dead in them. Ugh! She’s backed that up with piles of slug pellets. I’ve been trying out some of your suggestions from last year. Our vegetable patch is sprinkled with egg shells and coffee granules. We were also tipped off my Big Dreamer’s Granddad that shells are quite effective so Little Owl and I collected a good bag full recently to scatter around. Of all the pests in the garden slugs are the ones I want least interaction with, not even dead, so I’m keen on methods of control that put them off rather than killing them. Any ideas most welcome!
Here’s a drawing from half way up the hill behind our house with one of the old barns in the foreground.
