Slimy and Savage - the Spanish Slug


It's been a bumper year for the 10" incomers mobbing our gardens, says Sarah Rainey in the Telegraph on 28 September.

They're the slimy invaders that attack our vegetable patches and play havoc with our best begonias, leaving a glistening trail of destruction behind them.  Slugs have been a blight on British gardens for decades.  But this year, after the wettest summer in more than a century, we're in the midst of an invasion - and the slugs are bigger and more ferocious than ever.

"Monster slugs" from the Iberian peninsula are swarming across Britain, fuelled by the rain, which has proved ideal conditions for the creatures to grow.  Slug experts report a two-fold increase in giant Spanish slugs, which can grown up to 10" long, with some gardens swamped by 200 at a time.  There have been reports of these slugs gnawing on dead rabbits and invading letter boxes, where they devour the glue on stamps.

Concerned Daily Telegraph readers have flooded our post room with tales of the 'longest and fattest' slugs they have ever seen.  'Could this be because we have a nuclear facility a few miles away, and the slugs have mutated?' asks one reader in Chester.  'I have put the obesity epidemic down to my calorie-laden dahlia leaves', writes another reader from Eltham.  And a Wandsworth reader explains what happened when her husband dared to confront one: 'When he foolishly picked one up with his bare hand, his punishment was to be covered in a thick slime ejected by the ugly garden pest.  Slug: 1/ Husband: 0!'

There are some 30 species of slugs in Britain, the most common of which is the grey field or netted slug (Agriolimax reticulatus).  These can grown up to 1.5" in length.  Although they'll greedily lunch on soft fgruit and vegetables, they are unlikely to be the monstrous molluscs spotted in readers' gardens.

More common this year are two varieties that have crossed the continent: the 'Spanish stealth slug' (Arion flagellus), breeding here for 40 years, and the 'Spanish slug' (Arion vulgaris), which hitched a lift across the Channel in pot plants and salads.

'Big slugs mature at this time of year, which is why we're seeing massive amounts,' explains Dr David Glen, a slug specialist with Styloma Research and Consulting.  'They're especially big because we've had such ideal growing conditions.  Not much will eat them: they have a very sticky, defensive mucus to repel predators.'

Spanish slugs can be spotted by their distinctive colour - their skin has an orangey hue and their foot sole (underneath the body) is dark.  The stealth slugs, which don't grow to such lengths, tend to be green underneath, while the younger ones bear 'go-faster' stripes.  The invading molluscs are 'pre-adapted to spread', explains Dr Les Noble, a slug expert from Aberdeen University.  'They self-fertilise, so if one gets into an area, you'll soon find a whole colony.  Spanish slugs can lay between 300 and 500 eggs, while our native slugs only lay around 150.'

As well as chomping on cabbages, potatoes and soft fruit such as strawberries, the non-native slugs use their thousands of tiny teeth to guzzle sweet peas, beans, broccoli, courgettes and rhubarb.
They even pose a threat to the survival of smaller British slugs.  'It's a double whammy,', says Dr Noble.  'The invaders come over carrying parasites and diseases which our slugs haven't adapted to deal with.'

Slug pellets containing metaldehyde or ferric phosphate are the usual remedy (the hardware chain B&Q reports a 74% rise in sales this year), as is sprinkling salt around the flower beds - this dehydrates the slugs.  Experts say hand-picking can be just as effective, killing the slugs humanely by dropping them into a bucket of hot water.  'You should clear away plant pots and piles of leaves from the outside of the house', adds Ian Miller of pest control company Cleankill.

There are many ideas for how to control (ie kill!) slugs but in the end, says Dr Glen, gardeners may be fighting a losing battle.  'Soon this year's batch will lay their eggs in the soil and die off.  Their eggs will hatch over the winter and next year the invasion could start all over again.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_slug, http://theforeigner.no/pages/columns/the-great-norwegian-garden-slug-invasion/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18685229

Incidentally, there was an article about this in the Daily Mail on 2 July, so they story's been around for several months.

Many people advocate the use of coffee grounds to deter slugs (or cats) - but apparently this is illegal, why?

Apparently 'any material used for pest control or as an animal repellent' within the European Union has to be approved for that purpose. The research required to gain approval for use as a pesticide is extremely costly and this has not been done for caffeine.  
Having said that, the caffeine content of coffee grounds is negligible (it end sup in your drink). Grounds can be used for other purposes, such as a mulch, if the intention is to improve plant growth, but not if the aim is to repel slugs and cats.  
This may seem silly but regulations on pesticide use are intended to stop dangerous chemicals being used to deal with pests, diseases and weeds.'

(from Andrew Halstead. Principle Scientist Plant Health)41004200420 

and http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/20-ways-control-slugs-permaculture-garden-or-allotment and http://www.getridofslugs.com/

Some ideas for how to live in harmony with dogs and cats in your garden

For both dogs and cats Bunny Guiness** suggests:

For solving the tell-tale yellow rings left on the lawn by dogs try adding two dessertspoons of tomato juice to the dog’s food (less for a small dog).  After a few weeks the yellow rings are no longer produced.  Apparently the juice alters the level of ammonia in the urine.  It also stops the browning of bushes caused by male dogs.  Also ‘Odor Free’, a Yucca-based product by an American company called J&G Laboratories, achieves the same effect.   Within 45 – 60 days the yello—lawn problem disappears.  It also claims to eliminate that familiar ‘eau de dog’, as well as dogs’ gas odours, body odours and bad breath – and it does the same for cats, seewww.dogsodorfree.com.

Another common dog problem is their tendency to chase cats through your most delicate flowers or bury bones under a newly-acquired treasured plant.  Old-fashioned discipline is suggested.  Whenever I have a new puppy, I spend time weeding with it.  Every time the dog follows me onto the border, I say ‘off!’ and push them back.  I try to work round all the borders, and by the end of the first session they’ve pretty much got the drift.  Of course, dogs still pursue things, but only if they think you’re not watching!

There is a system whereby cables are run underground, enclosing the forbidden areas and under the gateway to the road.  The dogs have a tag on their collars and if they cross the cable they get the mildest shock.  These systems are humane and effective; they also eliminate the worry of animals getting out onto the road. A similar system is supplied by PAC Products Ltd, www.pacdog.com.

The issue of dogs and their parasite, the round-worm toxocara, is potentially more worrying.  The eggs of this tiny worm can be passé d in faeces, then transferred to children’s hands and ingested.  Alarmingly, the eggs can also be picked up from the animals’ fur and from foxes. The eggs take two to three weeks to mature, but they can live up to three years.  If the eggs are swallowed, there is a slight possibility of catching toxocariasis which produces ‘flu’-like symptoms.  In rare cases, vision is affected, blindness is rarer still.

For peace of mind, make sure hands are washed thoroughly after playing, clear up dog mess and preferably train dogs to soil in a specific out-of-the-way spot.  Good hygiene and worming your dog frequently sorts out these problems.

Cats can cause more ill-feeling in neighbours than loud music and conifers combined.  For people trying to encourage birds to nest in their garden, living check-by-jowl with feline enthusiasts is not a recipe for harmony.  One of the best ways to prevent unwanted visitors is to have your own cat; otherwise try a battery-operated device that picks up movement with an infra-red detector and emits ultra-sonic, high-pitched frequencies which scare of intruders over a range of about 10m.  These do help but work best in open gardens as ultrasound is not efficient through fences and shrubs.

To keep my own cats off your plants and seedlings I use a battery of scenic twigs, which works fairly effectively.  I also find that leaving a tray of clean sand and earth in a convenient spot helps; they make a beeline for this rather than scraping holes in my borders.

Other methods include chemical deterrents, such as pepper powder, essential oils and methyl nonyl ketone, which keep animals away without harming them.  They can be effective but, in our rainy climate, rather short-term.  One harassed client finds the best deterrent is a bucket of water slung out of the bedroom window.

I have often heard it said that if you put lion excrement down in your garden it works a treat.  I happened to sit next to the owner of a couple of safari parks at a barbecue recently and, over the beef burgers, quizzed him on this issue.  He reckoned, from feedback, that it was not always very effective.

Cats may also carry toxoplasmosis, a parasite of many birds and animals.  It is usually only harmful to pregnant women, and there’s a small risk to the foetus.  If you are pregnant, it’s worth wearing garden gloves when working in the garden.  Cover sandpits to prevent cats using them.

Yet despite all these frightening-sounding negatives, I, for one, would not enjoy the garden or gardening nearly as much if my cats and dogs were not there, padding around my feet.

** From an article by Bunny Guinness in the Sunday Telegraph.

Further ideas to discourage cats*:

• Sound: Catwatch has an infrared sensor that activates an untrasonic alarm when it detects body heat and movement.  The sound is inaudible to humans but intolerable to cats (not to other animals), which soon learn to avoid the area, see www.conceptresearch.co.uk.
• Pong power: cats have a useful Achilles heel – their delicate sense of smell.  Renardine 72-2 has such an offensive pong that it can be used to banish them -0 and other pests – from the garden.  Simply soak pieces of wood or rags in the formulation and lay or hang these at strategic places.  www.roebuck-eyot.co.uk.
• Smelly sticks: a pack of Green Bs Professional Cat Repeller contains four rods impregnated with a pungent citronella extract.  Each rod covers 1 sq yd and is effective for up to 10 weeks.  www.greenbs.co.uk.
• Bird Saver: Protect nesting birds from cats with this spike belt that circles the tree trunk.  Sections link together so it easily adapts to fit snugly around different trees.  There are two kit sizes, see www.jacobijayne.com.
• Aromatherapy: Non-toxic pellets are soaked in essence of lion dung, dired and then steralised.  They trick the local cats into thinking that a big cat is on the prowl.  Silent Roar, The Traditional Garden Supply Company.
• Water cannon: this scarecros from Drivall is fitted with a sensor and a notion-activated sprinkler that fires a harmless but startling 3-second blast of water when unwanted animals venture into its 2,000 sq ft range.  www.drivall.com.

* From an article in the Telegraph by Jean Vernon

The term ‘heirloom vegetables’ takes on a whole new meaning when one minute you’re gardening in 17^th century style, not long after potatoes were brought to Britain, and the next working in the garden of a 1948 prefab.  Every day, gardeners at the Museum of Welsh Life near Cardiff have to think themselves back into a gardening time warp:

Museum of Welsh Life near Cardiff

 

This open air museum (http://www.museumwales

.ac.uk/en/stfagans/) is in the grounds of St Fagan’s Castle, a late 16C manor house, and encompasses over 40 original buildings moved from various parts of Wales and re-erected there.  The idea is to show how people have lived, worked and spent their leisure time over the last 500 years. 

Naturally, this includes what they grew and so the gardens around the houses provide a living demonstration of gardening techniques, historically-correct plantings and an insight into the social class of the original inhabitants, from the 16C to the present day.

They try to keep the gardens as authentic as possible, both in style and in varieties of crops grown.  Discovering which varieties were being grown at a time is not always easy and research is continuing all the time – and then it’s a question of sourcing the seed.  They find the HDRA’s Heritage Seed Library a great help – their ‘Crimson Flowered’ broad bean features in several gardens, for example.  The museum also orders many heirloom varieties from Thomas Etty.

Farm kitchen garden - 1610

All vegetables have to be sown direct in the garden (and then thinned out) at Kenixton Farmhouse which was built in 1610 and moved to the museum in 1955 from the Gower peninsula).  Farms in that era were truly self-sufficient and relied on making use of everything at hand to aid their growing; digging-in cow and well as horse manure to improve soil fertility.

The soil would have been warmed for early sowings by making a hot bed with horse manure and straw.

Early, knobbly potatoes are grown here, but of course, in those days the gardeners would not have had to contend with potato blight as this appeared much later, at the time of the Irish potato famine from 1845 – 49.

It is likely that the gardeners at that time would have rotated their crops.

They would have grown parsnips, carrots, leeks, beans, members of the cabbage family, as well as raspberries and rhubarb.

Honey was an important ingredient before sugar became generally available, and there is a bee shelter in the garden.  Skeps, made from coiled straw, were used before the advent of hives as we know them today, and each would contain a swarm of bees.

Miners’ terrace gardens – 1800 – 1985

A small terrace of six iron-ore miners’ cottages built about 1800 in Merthyr Tydfil have been developed to reflect the changes in living and gardening in 50 year stages from 1805, when the whole garden was devoted to growing vegetables, to 1985 when the trend was for more of a leisure garden where children could play.

The original tenants would have double dug the gardens each year.  One of the cottages has a pigeon loft at the bottom and the muck is added to the compost heap to break down as it would be too strong to use raw.

Castle borders come alive again – 1900

St Fagan’s Castle did have a large walled vegetable garden, but for many years it had been simply grassed over, with a mulberry grove being planted nearer the manor house.  But a few years ago it was decided to bring vegetables back to the grounds by turning one of the borders into a kitchen garden.  Peaches were already growing against the wall and so there are mainly low-growing crops such as potatoes, chard and leeks.  Also there are old-fashioned tall peas and a row of runner beans. Cardoons are grown in trenches as they used to be, this makes it much easier to earth up for blanching the stems for eating.  Seakale is forced using clay pots, and globe artichokes are grown.

Plot with no potatoes – 1678

What surprises most visitors to the garden at Abernodwydd farmhouse is the lack of potatoes.  The timber-framed farmhouse was originally built in Powys, mid-Wales, in 1678, a time when potatoes were not grown there.

The beds were edged with box hedging but are now simply separated by beaten earth paths topped with cinders as it is thought to be more authentic.  Research is still on-going.  Now the beds feature a mixture of herbs, such as sorrel and rosemary, cabbages and kales, tall peas and broad beans, as well as onions.

Farm labourers cottage – 1770

If you thought raised beds were a modern invention, think again.  In the garden of Nant Wallter cottage, turf-sided raised beds have been re-created to show how they were used to overcome the problem of shallow soil.

The mud-walled cottage was originally built in about 1770 in Taliaris, Carmarthenshire, where there was very little top soil. 

Crops would have been fairly limited and they would have concentrated on potatoes, onions and collards (or greens), including Good King Henry, as well as herbs which they would have relied on for medicine.

Middle Ages farmers’ fare – 1508

The quite large vegetable garden at Hendre’r-ywydd Uchaf is typical of what the better class of Welsh farmer would have gardened about 1500.  One end of the long single-storey building would have housed cattle, separated from the family by a wall and separate entrance.  The cow muck would have been used on the garden.

It is thought that the beds were edged in wood, but obviously not planed wood, and that the people spread waste on top of one bed at a time, allowing it to build up and then digging it into that bed the following year.

The gardeners have created six beds and now concentrate on growing simple vegetables such as beans, and brassicas including kale, as that is what research suggests is the most authentic for the period.

Vegetables were broadcast sown and not sown in rows as we do today.

There is also a ‘sorcerer’s garden’ of herbs such as wormwood and tansy, which would have been used as a strewing herb on the farm’s floor to help keep the house smelling sweet and to counteract pests such as fleas.  They would also have grown deadly nightshade, which was historically used as a narcotic and to allay cardiac palpitations.
(also see: http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/old-elizabethan-recipes.htm)

War on hunger - 1948

The garden of the 1948 prefab demonstrates how the wartime Dig for Victory campaign was continued into a ‘Digging for the war on hunger’ campaign as food rationing continued until 1953.

Prefabricated bungalows provided large numbers of homes quickly after people were made homeless during the Second World War and it was not considered patriotic to have more than the tiniest lawn – the space was used to grow food.

Vital elements

Fruit and vegetables used to give us all the minerals we need -  but not any more

 

Did you know that if your body becomes deficient in the minerals magnesium, calcium and potassium, you’re more likely to suffer irregularities in your heartbeat? 

And if you have an excess of iron, but insufficient copper levels, this greatly increases your risk of a heart attack, especially after 50?

One in ten people in Britain currently takes a multivitamin, but recent research from America suggests it’s also time to begin taking minerals seriously.

In theory if you eat plenty of fresh foods, including fruits and vegetables, you are ingesting all the nutrients the body needs - but this is no longer the case. 

In 1940 food scientists were asked by the Medical Research Council to analyse the mineral content of UK-grown fruits and vegetables.  In 1991, the duo conducted similar studies for the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Foods.

Then a comparative study was made of the figures and it was found that calcium levels in broccoli had dropped by up to 75% and magnesium levels in carrots had fallen by similar amounts. 

If these figures are correct, why are mineral levels becoming depleted?

Intensive farming methods during the past 60 years, plus acid rain and overuse of artificial fertilisers, have reduced the absorption of minerals, such as selenium and zinc into our fruits, vegetables and grains. 

Mass-produced fertilisers generally contain only three minerals, but there are more than 36 known minerals, 21 of which are vital.  If they’re not in our soil, they’re not going to make it into our foods. This imbalance is having a big impact on our health.

 

Also, pesticides and pollutants such as lead accumulate in the body and prevent absorption of essential nutrients.

When people are given extra minerals, improvements have been noticed in a variety of conditions, including leg cramps, chronic fatigue, hyperactivity in children, migraines and, in some cases, autism.

Trials have been carried out now in China, Tunisia, the United states, France and New Zealand, when people were given a daily supplement of 200 mcg of chromium, which regulates blood sugar levels, instances of late-onset diabetes were almost halved.

Since 1984, when the Finnish government decreed that all fertilisers should contain selenium, sperm motility in men has increased by up to 35%, while incidence of heart disease and prostate cancers have fallen.

During the 1970s, before joining the EU, we imported huge amounts of Canadian wheat, which is rich in selenium, and the daily intake averages 70 mcg, today the average is 29 mcg.  Virtually all farm animals are given minerals in their feed to help prevent disease, perhaps it’s time to do the same for humans.

Mineral boost

• Eat Brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds, pecans, sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds.
• Fresh vegetable juices contain high levels of nutrients. Cabbage and broccoli absorb minerals well.
• Eat more organic fruits and vegetables with the skins and peel left on – peel contains higher concentrations of minerals.
• Avoid adding salt in cooking.
• Minerals in ascorbate, malate or citrate forms are easily absorbed.
• Take a multimineral supplement. 

 

What triggers us to plant?

In his brilliant blog (www.groundeddesign.com). American landscape architect Thomas Rainer (see left) wrote about why we plant – not how to, but why. 

It is, he suggests something we do purely for pleasure.  This is true if you discount productive gardens and I have often thought about why gardens mean so much to us.  Thomas quotes Fletcher Steele, another American landscape architect, who said that the chief vice of gardens is to be merely pretty.  It sounds austere, but I suspect most of us want more than exterior decoration, that gardens give us more than just a pretty picture.

My own take on why we plant involves otherworldliness.  Good gardens for me are places where human time stands still and you start to feel that there’s something going on under the surface e.  If that never happens, if the garden does not communicate some deep emotional message, then all the flowers and designer tricks are pointless.

Thomas thinks that the goal of planting in gardens is to remind us of some larger moment in nature.  After Britain’s Industrial Revolution, city dwellers made nostalgic expeditions to watch haymaking or harvesting, or simply to enjoy the fresh air that no longer surrounded them.

Today, because so many people live in towns and cities, nature is no longer part of everyone’s daily life.  Unlike the Victorians who actually knew what they were missing, some people have no memory of the sound of wind in long grass or walking under trees.

I think it is true that, deep down, there must be some shared subconscious memory of the natural world, but I also think that there may be another kind of nostalgia that governs our planting – and which I suspect most landscape architects might scorn.  

For many people the gardens of their childhood - of visits to a grandmother perhaps, or to a place they went for holidays – may also influence why they plant.  This is a different kind of memory, a recalling of the lost world of childhood, that might some might dismiss as sentimental.  Maybe. But I’m sure it’s equally as compelling as the idea that we are triggered by a collective nature reflex.

(Article in The Garden (RHS magazine), May 2012 by Mary Keen)

Also see: http://www.rhs.org.uk/

Growing to the Wall (groan)

Clematis cirrhosa balearice

Weave a spectacular tapestry of flowers and foliage with climbers and shrubs to transform a wall or an entire house.  Choose the right plant for the right place and leave it to work its magic on even the most unprepossessing aspect.

·        Climbers and wall shrubs are amongst the most rewarding plants you can grow. Given the right setting they will scramble up a wall, clamber over a fence or cheerfully camouflage an ugly fence or garden shed.  They will clothe trellis, pillars and pergolas with colour, yet take up very little ground space.

·        Some climbers, like honeysuckles and Russian vine, twine themselves around a frame; others, like ivy and Hydrangea petiolaris, cling to a wall using their aerial roots.  Sweet peas, the grape vine and clematis latch onto any support they can find with their tendrils, while roses use thorns to catch onto a surface.  Most wall shrubs are self-supporting and need little more than tying back for neatness.

·        On a sheltered, sunny wall the opportunities are endless.  Some ideas could be Clematis cirrhosa balearice with its glossy, elegantly cut, evergreen foliage, which bronzes attractively in winter, setting off its white flowers to perfection.  Wisteria sinensis is a good choice for early summer, while the climbing Solanum crispum and Solanum jasminoides (Alnum) flower for several months and often keep their dark glossy foliage through the winter.

·        For shady walls the choice is more limited, but no less beautiful.  Clematic Montana grows rapidly.  The pink forms ‘Rosea’ and the deeper ‘Tetrarose’ are commonly seen, but the ordinary species, which has white flowers and a delightful vanilla scent, shows up well in dark corners.

·        Companion climbing: beautiful as they are,, many climbers look even mbetter when grown with a partner. Deep red roses such as ‘Compassion’, ‘Climbing Etoile de Hollande’ and the single-flowered ‘Altissimo’ provide excellent support for Clematis vitacella, and also for purple- or lavender-flowered clematis such as ‘Ascotiensis’, ‘Perle d’Azur’ and the deep purpoe of ‘The President’.  The purple-leaved grape and the velvety Parthenocissus henryana add a sumptuous richness to the flowers of the ‘Jackmanii’ breeds.  Dark-leaved ivy makes a perfect background and sup0port for tall nasturtiums, and the fine-leaved myrtle goes well with the vivid orange of the Chilean ghlory vine (Eccremocarpus scaber).

Clematis vitacella (see 'companion climbing' above)

Planning for Climbers

·        The north facing wall gets little, if any, sun and is often I the path or prevailing cold winds.  But watering is seldom a difficulty since it is sun, rather than shade, that dries out most plants.  Climbers and wall shrubs to plant are ivy and Hydrangea petiolaris; morello cherry; Garrya elliptica; chaenomeles (Japanese quince); forsythia.  Some varieties of clematis can take these conditions, especially the rampant Clematis Montana.  The honeysuckle Lonicera x Americana grows well and so do many roses: ‘Gloire de Dijon’, Madame Alfred Carriere’ and ‘Climbing Etoile de Hollande’.  The flame flower, Tropaeolum speciosum, enjoys the cool, moist soil.

·        The east-facing wall: most of the plants which grow in a north-facing situation can be used here. Celastrus scandens will grow happily, as will Forsythia suspense and the evergreen Jasminum primulinum. Roses need not be ruled out, and ‘Caroline Testout’ with its double pink flowers and ‘Danse de Feu’ with orange-scarlet blooms can cope.

·        The south-facing wall: care must be taken to pick plants that can take strong sunshine and occasional bouts of drought.  Clematises are not happy here, since they need a cool root-run.  But you can take chances with myrtle (Myrtus communis), the blue-flowered ceanothus and Choisya ternate Camellias do well, so does the passion flower, Solanum crispum,  which is a climbing member of the potato family, and the magnolia.

·        The west-facing wall: this gives the most shelter to tender plants. Many south-facing candidates like camellias and magnolias do well, so do wisteria, the ‘Jackmanii’ clematis and Acinidia chinensis, the Chinese gooseberry.  Moroccan broom (Sytisus battandiers), is suitable, so is the species chaenomeles.  The choosy Prunus triloba, an attractive version of the ornamental almond with double pink flowers, thrives in this situation, as do many roses.

Myrtus communis (see 'south-facing wall' above)

Supporting Climbers

The least trouble and the least obtrusive support is wooden trellis, which blends well with fencing and may even improve its appearance.  It can also be set on top to give added height.

Fix trellis slightly away from the wall, nailed

 …. to be continued … when I can find the rest of the article (P43).