I spent several hours at the allotment this morning. Our plot still needs a lot of work but when I compare the now photo with the before photo I realise we have come a long way. Here’s how it looked in April:
Here’s how it looks today:
Now I just need to turn it into food. Right now I’m mostly feeding the resident slug population. My kale has been decimated:
I have a three-pronged strategy in my war against the slugs. Firstly, I bought some nematodes which are microorganisms that infect slugs and kill them. I watered that into the soil today so hopefully I’ll see some improvements in the coming weeks. Secondly, I put out some beer traps which will attract the snails and drown them. Thirdly, I put down some strulch. Strulch is a straw mulch that repels slugs and snails. I put it on the garden at home. It reduces the number of weeds and helps retain soil moisture. It also smells lovely. Poisonous slug pellets are best avoided. I’ve heard they can be eaten by small animals and then the small animals are eaten by larger animals causing the poison to travel up the food chain getting more and more concentrated. The poisons have also been found in streams and rivers.
Here is one of the beer traps:
It’s fair to say our allotment is the worst one there except for this one but it doesn’t look like anyone is tending to this one so it doesn’t really count.
rachel.blog 
I might be wrong Rachel, but I suspect pigeons are the culprits this time. I can lend you a net and some blue hoops if you want. Norman.
Really? Pigeons eat kale??? I never knew. Ok, I will get some netting.
You didn’t read my blog closely enough 🙂 :
Caring For Kale
I have used slug pellets, but miraculously I don’t seem to suffer much (I’m not sure why), so I don’t any more. I did buy a trap which had a lid on it – the slugs would enter through a small gap in the sides. The idea was you put in slug pellets and the slugs would enter and die in the trap, and so the poison wouldn’t work its way up the food chain, cos nothing else could get in the trap to eat the poisoned slug.
Ah you’re right! I didn’t see that. I have ordered some netting and will cover the kale as soon as it arrives. I don’t have the same problem in my garden at home. The kale thrives but the allotment is more rural so maybe there are just more birds there.
Well, in all fairness, I didn’t really intend my blog as a source of advice to others; mainly cos I don’t really know what I’m doing! So it’s not really surprising you didn’t see it.
Netting is always useful! I bought some for my kale until spring, and I then used it for my strawberry patch, it’s now protecting the raspberries, and will be back with the kale soon. I think you’re doing the right thing by getting stuff as you need it.
If you haven’t already, you probably ought to give some thought to crop rotation and how you’re going to divide up the ground, and also any permanent area – for soft fruit, Rhubarb, asparagus perhaps, and a nursery bed. Any fruit should be planted this autumn. I got strawberry runners and rhubarb last winter from other plot holders who were dividing their stock.
Great progress on the allotment, but sad about slugs / snails. We have them in the house and I use slug repellent pellets (when I remember). Those beer traps sound interesting, what a way to go!
In the house you can just put a bowl of beer down. It doesn’t need a lid or anything. I catch lots of slugs in my green house that way.