Last year I counted the number collected just from the potager and was staggered to find it was over fourteen thousand of the slimy munchers. But this year, things felt different; evening slugs patrols were often in the company of hedgehogs and almost every time I put fork or trowel to soil I would uncover glow worm larvae. It was magical..
Arthritis, especially in the winter and early spring, made weeding and bending very difficult so I opted for a deep mulching approach, using a combination of homemade compost and leaf mold, bought in bagged horse manure (a bargain purchase) uncomposted leaves as I was unable to collect many in the autumn, and then as spring and summer progressed I used grass clippings from our own plot (alright, rather more weed clippings) and brought home trailer loads from the gardens of clients where we cut the grass.
The weeds were suppressed, and for the first time I was constantly disturbing blackbirds sifting through the mulch. No doubt they were taking plenty of beneficial insects like my precious glow worms, and they made a right mess of the paths and beds, but I'm sure they've made a huge impact on the slug population.
How huge? Well, having totalled up this year's haul, I am again staggered to report that it stands at a mere 5700, less than half the total from last year. Alright, so 2013 was exceptionally wet, but given that the very mild winter of 2013/4 will have failed to make a dint on the population, I'm happy to put the reduction down to continued slug collecting, and gardening for and with wildlife, which in turn has helped us out.
In 2014 I even managed to sow crops straight into the ground for the first time and have things like lettuces, beetroot, carrots, herbs, leaf beet, turnips make it to maturity.
Slugs vanquished? I hope not as no slugs mean no slug eaters. But I think they might be rather more a balanced part of the garden now.
I have high hopes for 2015.
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