I’ve been struggling with the slugs at the allotment this year. Most of the seedlings I’ve planted have completely vanished, presumably eaten by slugs. Last month I applied nematodes to the soil and put out a heap of beer traps. There seem to be fewer slugs now and although I’d like to take the credit for this it may simply be because we haven’t had rain in 6 weeks. I have never seen it so dry here. Consequently I’m probably not going to get much produce from my plot but here’s what I do have so far.
In the foreground of this next photo are some alpine strawberries.
I have a couple of quite advanced brassicas. I’m not sure what these are but I planted them over the winter. Or maybe it was last autumn? I forget now.
I have some brassicas that I planted this year coming along nicely now too, but most of them have disappeared. Here’s what’s left:
I’ve collected a heap of kale seed pods from last year’s kale.
The tomatoes in my greenhouse at the allotment look sickly. The leaves are curling. It has been very hot and temperatures inside the greenhouse would have soared so I’m hoping it’s just high temperatures causing problems. I’ve read that a virus can also cause tomato leaves to curl. I’ll have to wait and see but these are starting to fruit so I don’t want to pull them all out.
I’ve also got some courgettes which are struggling a bit with the lack of water but surviving nonetheless.
Finally my beans are starting to grow but they too could do with water. In this next photo the beans are at the bottom of each stake and there are potatoes on the right and what will hopefully be healthy beetroots on the left.
I’m lucky if I can get to the allotments every week. Often it is once a fortnight and when I do visit after an absence it looks so different. Things are growing quickly now – although mostly the things I don’t want! But it’s exciting to see food growing through my own efforts and to get my hands dirty. I’m learning a lot and have a great deal of admiration for farmers, especially organic farmers. How do they do it? It’s not an easy job.
rachel.blog 
For a science project last year my daughter looked at what the best options for an organic type of deterrent for slugs/snails would be for lettuces. Bran seemed to be the best performer. We looked at pumice, shells from the beach, pumice and shells, as well as eggshells (those were the worst deterrent) and a control of no deterrent. We did have to replace the bran, although its quite cheap!
Thanks for the tip. I’ll give it a try with my particularly vulnerable seedlings.
We have allotments just behind our house – there is a path past them that leads to town. Ever since the children were little, as we walk into town (won’t drive on principle, even though it’s about a mile) we look in on the allotments to see what people are growing. I’ve sometimes thought about putting our name on the list, but we have a huge garden that we don’t look after already 🙂
Do it! It might take a couple of years to get to the top of the waiting list and you can always say no when that happens. Someone once told me that the garden at your home is for flowers. The allotment is for veggies 🙂
I can highly recommend putting ripped up rhubarb leaves around the base of your plants to keep the slugs away. Several people on my site have used it and it has worked brilliantly
Thanks for the tip! I can definitely do that. I have heaps of rhubarb!
I can only imagine how it must be to only visit your garden once a week! You are managing it beautifully. Be Proud!!!
If I wasn’t working I’d be there everyday 🙂