How Does our Garden Grow?

michael57

WelshBlue said:

I've had a running battle for 20 years with slugs ... tried everything ... I swear they're SAS trained

It's not unknown for me to be out in the garden in just my boxers and holding a torch after rain, slug hunting.  Not sure why my neighbours think I'm weird ... 

that is the best time to catch them for sure i do it so being weird is ok but dawnie recons i am weird anyway welcome to the club 

Sandy_123

A dish of beer i heard is good also cats eats snails they crush them with there paw then eat it, gross I know

michael57

Sandy_123 said:

A dish of beer i heard is good also cats eats snails they crush them with there paw then eat it, gross I know

heat beer and dead drunk slugs absolutely revolting smell haha 

onedayatatime

I'm the odd ball you find out in the garden of a night with a torch and a pair of scissors. Those big massive slugs with the orange frilly bit demolish everything! But I leave the leopard slugs alone because they are meant to be ok, I think.
I chuck snails over the fence I to next doors garden 🤭

michael57

onedayatatime said:

I'm the odd ball you find out in the garden of a night with a torch and a pair of scissors. Those big massive slugs with the orange frilly bit demolish everything! But I leave the leopard slugs alone because they are meant to be ok, I think.
I chuck snails over the fence I to next doors garden 🤭

chuck em over next doors garden haha our neighbours spy on me when dawnie is out so i dont think i could get away with that 

Sandy_123

The image of you all in the garden at night with torches and hunting, not  a sport I've taken up lol

michael57

Sandy_123 said:

The image of you all in the garden at night with torches and hunting, not  a sport I've taken up lol

dont knock it till you try it i crack dawnie up when i do it with my david bellamy voice 

Albus_Scope

onedayatatime said:

I'm the odd ball you find out in the garden of a night with a torch and a pair of scissors. Those big massive slugs with the orange frilly bit demolish everything! But I leave the leopard slugs alone because they are meant to be ok, I think.

Yes, leopard slugs eat other slugs and wont eat live plants, so they're friends to me haha. We had one living in our kitchen over the winter. 

The huge ones are the newer Spanish slugs that have invaded the UK, apparently once they get that big, many predators wont touch them and they are very prolific breeders. 

Hopefully inoculating my garden with lots of microscopic, slug eating nematodes will help keep the garden safe for a few months. 

Teigr

Rats wouldn't stand a chance in our garden @Albus_Scope,next door's cat is a fanatical hunter.

Albus_Scope

Please send their cat over to us please @Teigr ours is far too arthritic to do anything other than watch the birds.   

Sandy_123

This is now blooming 

Teigr

I've seen her running around with dead rats that are almost as big as she is @Albus_Scope.

Very pretty @Sandy_123.

Steve_in_The_City

@Albus_Scope I am not sure how you would like rats as friends or how they look cute, but each to his own! Michael Jackson liked his friend Ben!

I had one in my garden. He/she used to come up from a hole in the ground, so I guess it was like a tunnel. I poured bleach etc down the hole and the rat came no more to visit. Then I accidentally run one over on the pavement while  driving my mobility scooter. He/she jumped up on the running board and I was absolutely terrified.

I am ok with slugs and snails though.

To be serious I would like to do something with my front yard and get it to  look nice, but I am not much of a gardener (I can do the very basics) so will probably have to ask some questions. I don't think I will get very far. But here is saying thank you to the gardeners who do make their place look nice.

onedayatatime

@Steve_in_The_City
I accidentally run one over on the pavement while driving my mobility scooter. He/she jumped up on the running board and I was absolutely terrified.
I'm sorry, but whilst that must have been terrifying, it did make me laugh!
They really can jump and can be very aggressive! Somewhere in my head I remember being told never to corner one. Or that might be from reading the book Rats by James Herbert as a kid.  

Steve_in_The_City

@onedayatatime I have never read the book, but I just know I don't like rats! Have a good rat free day! Steve.

michael57

Nice cheap cold frame

michael57

should get some brownie points from the neighbours when there gifted 👌 

onedayatatime

I'm off to investigate the lupin situation this morning. There's a bunch of lupins the sparrows seem very interested in. Now I know there are big fat juicy aphids on them and I thought they are just eating them, flying back to the nests with them for those chicks. But I read online that the sparrows get a taste for the nectar and strip the flowers? Have I been blaming super slugs this whole time?? Are these sparrows just not happy with mealworms and suet pellets??? Will the lupins survive!!????

michael57

onedayatatime said:

I'm off to investigate the lupin situation this morning. There's a bunch of lupins the sparrows seem very interested in. Now I know there are big fat juicy aphids on them and I thought they are just eating them, flying back to the nests with them for those chicks. But I read online that the sparrows get a taste for the nectar and strip the flowers? Have I been blaming super slugs this whole time?? Are these sparrows just not happy with mealworms and suet pellets??? Will the lupins survive!!????

you are correct they do get a taste for the nectar when in flower if there not in flower i would say they are after greenfly aphids they visit our garden and jump on the geum stems bend them over and eat the greenfly hungry has to be fed 

Sandy_123

My b&m hoard got 13 in total can't fit them all in sink