GARDENER’S NOTEBOOK

Gardening editor Paula Mcwaters shows how to get the best from your plot in March

Everything you need to know to get the most from your plot this month

s spring gets underway in earnest, I’m always filled with blithe optimism, but nothing cuts a gardener or her plants down to size more quickly than an invasion of slugs and snails, so I’m getting ready for the little blighters with a range of deterrents. First comes a general clear-out of all the places they overwinter, then I cut up plastic bottles to make collars for vulnerable plants and gather stocks of grit or wool pellets to create a barrier. Nemaslug nematodes will give up to six weeks’ natural slug control and we’ve had success with copper tape round the upper edge of our raised beds and hosta pots – its natural electric charge repels them and they don’t care to cross it. Any that do get in are lured into the “pub” – traps filled with beer (although I admit that emptying these is rather stomach-churning). Consult gardenorganic.org.uk/ slugs-and-snails for comprehensive advice, including a list of plants they don’t like, such as acanthus, eryngium, hardy geraniums, nepeta and Oriental poppies.