
6 Plants Our Slugs Don't Seem To Care For
When we first visited our field, we were seduced by its boundaries - the mature, blooming hedgerows, the wild river Char and a smattering of veteran oak trees. What a nice place to grow a garden.
Something we didn't think about was that this lovely (if a little wet) field would be full of slugs. The combination of wet habitat near the river and very mild winters means we have slugs which are big and hungry. So big, we often mistake them for small rodents.
As organic growers, there isn't loads we can do about them but we follow these few tips:
1. Keep areas around young plants free from plant debris (a.k.a. slug habitat)
2. Grow 'slug fodder' crops like Delphiniums in larger module trays to give them a head start
3. Hold off on early plantings, particularly if its wet. Plants need to be actively growing if they are going to bounce back from slug damage.
4. If things get really bad, we collect them up and give them to the chickens.
5. Grow more plants than you think you'll need - expect some crop losses.
The last tip is the most important one.
I've also noticed a few plants which seem to suffer less from slug damage even when they're rife. Here's my list:
Flowers
1. Cynoglossum - the hairy leaves seem to put off slugs. We have our own 'Winnow Mix' of these Chinese Forget-me-nots which is a cross between 'Mystic Pink' and 'Firmament'
2. Snapdragons - one of the most hardy cut flowers out there, it takes a lot to bring a snapdragon down! They are extremely generous flowerers even when conditions are harsh. We stock 'Orange Wonder' a fresh, summery flower.
3. Foxgloves - an all round toxic plant to slugs (and humans) so they leave these gorgeous flowers alone.
Edibles
1. Salad Mustards 'Rouge Metis' and 'Golden Frills' - these two highly cut winter salad leaves almost look like lace. They tend to be less targeted by slugs in comparison to their broadleaved sister varieties. Or maybe you just notice the damage less because the leaves are so jagged anyway!
2. Nasturtium - there's a lot to be said for these jolly edible flowers. Lovely peppery leaves and flowers for salads and the plants are so resilient. They'll grow in shade, cope with aphid attacks and slugs tend to avoid them. We stock a trailing mix called 'Kaleidoscope'.
One of my resolutions this year is to revolutionise our slug management plan and my starting place is going to be reading The Good Slug Guide by Jo Kirby. Brace yourselves for more slug chat and perhaps a few photos of our biggest specimens.. Send me a pic if you find a particularly impressive one in your garden! I'm tempted to make it into a competition - free seeds for the garden with the biggest garden slug!
- Ellen