Four slug-resistant plants
Aquilegia
Granny’s bonnet (aquilegia) are quintessential cottage garden plants and, luckily, slugs seem to leave them alone.
Fuchsia
A favourite with many gardeners and available in some beautiful colour combinations nowadays.
Pelargonium
Slugs don’t seem to like plants with hairy stems and leaves, so your pelargoniums are usually safe.
Eryngium
Spiky leaves are normally a turn-off for slugs, so sea holly is a good choice if you’re looking for an architectural plant.
Q Bulbs rot in our wet clay soil. What can we do?
Carol Fern, Eastleigh, Hampshire
AMost bulbs, such as tulips, crocus and iris, originate from the Middle East and Central Asia and are adapted to withstanding long summer droughts. This is quite the opposite to your conditions. One option is to create raised beds, filled with a well-drained mix of good garden soil or loam, grit and old potting compost. The other is to grow bulbs that thrive in damper conditions.
Among these plants are many spring-flowering daffodils and the snake’s head fritillary ( Fritillaria meleagris) together with early summerflowering camassias and
summer snowflakes ( Leucojum aestivum).