The view from your side of the fence
HOT TOPIC Snail deterrent or direct action?
I thought I would share with you a photo of my dear hosta of many years, which has finally managed to grow leaves that are as yet uneaten. I tried planting her in the ground first, but every year she was devoured by slugs and snails. So three years ago I decided enough was enough and dug her up and popped her into an old chimney pot in the hope she would be safe.
But for the first two years the same thing happened, and I didn’t want to use slug pellets as I have a wildlife garden.
When she started to grow again this year, I had the idea of getting some old tin foil and weaving in among the newly emerging leaves (hoping it might work in a similar way to copper strips). And lo and behold, she’s looking the best ever!
I’m so glad I didn’t give up, and so far so good – the little critters haven’t found her and she looks lovely!
Helen Cripps, by email
I do try to garden organically, but feel I am fighting a losing battle with snails – I could supply French restaurants with enough for the year! It is so heartbreaking to see my plants eaten down to bare ribs. I’ve tried all the tricks, but in desperation have resorted to pellets. I’m all for balance in nature, but I can’t afford to see new plants decimated, without fighting back sometimes.
I also had to give up on my spindle tree, as blackfly infested all the new shoots and flower buds as soon as they appeared. I tried blasting them off with the hose, but they bred faster than I could get rid of them. After having the life sucked out of them, the new shoots dropped off and the replacements had very few flowers. In the end I gave up and removed the tree, sadly.
Rosemary Dinning, by email
A close encounter of the raptor kind
Some years ago Dorset Wildlife awarded me a certificate confirming my garden’s wildlife-friendly status. A miscellany of mammals, birds, insects, amphibians and the occasional reptile seem to regard it as theirs.
The payback is a pest-free border and plenty of entertainment, as happened yesterday when I was sitting outside reading Alan’s article, ‘Making a garden a place for wildlife’ (May issue). I was startled by the sound of something crashing through a nearby shrub and looked up in time to see a sparrowhawk zoom between the shed and the shrub, take a sharp turn round it (very near me) and back into the garden, in hot pursuit of one of the small birds. It was thrilling and by no means my first close encounter with the hawk over the years.
There’s always something to amaze me and wonder at in my wildlife-friendly
