SUPER ORGANIC GARDENER HUGS SLUGS

HUG A SLUG

Now what ‘nutter’ would ever say anything like that? I extracted this headline from The Times this morning which would put some people right off me (even only because I am a Times reader!) in the divisive world that we live in. 48 to 52 just to make a Brexit point!

However, back to my initial ‘HUG A SLUG’ and the vegan man who appears to be the subject of this article. He has a point, but I know that if you want pretty flowers in your front garden borders then you will provide natural food for the slug. Well they do have the right to eat to live. Okay, maybe not, for the human race also wants control. I used to keep Khaki Campbell Ducks and they loved slugs - Yum- Yum. But they would also waddle all over your pretty plants and make a mess too.

So, what ‘does one do’? Well the proper solution is to only buy plants that are not juicy enough for slugs to eat, or alternatively just put poison onto the soil and kill them?

We are good at killing things, stopping nature, netting trees and hedges to stop birds nesting. Tesco, at some locations, are preventing Barn Swallows nesting because they make a mess. So, Tesco shareholders and management you are helping to destroy our natural world. Ignorance is no excuse and there is always an alternative. Yes, work with nature. Just think more.

Our man, in The Times article, also suggested we should not have bird feeders or water features in gardens because they can attract rats, mice, squirrels and cats and even foxes! Well they are entitled to a life too or shall we just call them pests? I say keep feeding the birds as they need all the help we can give them. We have rats around us anyway and they are terrific survivors and are part of the natural food chain.

Graham Appleby, the deputy editor of Horticulture Week, is the source of this news item and the full read can be found in his book ‘The Super Organic Garden’. I have not read it and would think that there is some sound advice in there as to how to promote economical, sustainable and healthy gardening. Perhaps, it is the journalist that has become fixated with anyone’s need to ‘hug a slug’.

My point is don't use poisons. Everything has to live in the same general environment and whatever we humans do will affect everything living. It is up to us.