The Wine Widow on slugs, ale and eggshells…
I admired the orange geums and Zam took photographs of a multi-stemmed hazel for reference but the garden that really galvanised me at my first ever visit to the Chelsea Flower Show was in front of a beautiful greenhouse. Bushy broad beans, thriving salads, neat leeks… I wandered up the path towards a welcoming sales man. “Where are the slugs?” I said. I gave him no chance to respond before launching into my only current topic of conversation.
I go out at night with a torch and pick them off every pot in the greenhouse, I bury ale in deep dishes amongst the hollyhock and foxglove seedlings, I have invested in some pricey copper rings (so only have enough to do two beans and three delphiniums - beans destroyed, delphiniums currently surviving), I have scattered baked and crushed eggshells around every plant base and I have emptied coffee granules all over the place. Each morning I go out to find what damage has been done and increasingly to see if anything is left.
The man shifts uneasily. I sound deranged. “Well you know…” he says soothingly “this isn’t a real garden.” I refuse to find this cheering in any way. And then he tells me he overheard another exhibitor describe how he boils up garlic bulbs and sprays the water over his plants. “I think it was for slug protection” he says uncertainly. I realise he would like me to move along. I thank him. I compliment his greenhouse.
I come home to find the cosmos are the latest victims. I’ve been telling people these are the only plants that slugs don’t seem to like but this is wrong. They’ve just left them till last. Then I boil a kettle and pour it over some garlic bulbs.
The next morning I look at new levels of decimation. The garlic water has acted like a particularly attractive vinaigrette.
