I’ve been puzzled (but pleased ) by the near absence of slugs in the newly redesigned vegetable plot. I was pretty sure that they hadn’t gone off in a huff because we had disturbed their usual haunts, but it has finally dawned on me what has kept them at bay. It’s the combination of the recycled rough concrete panels that have been used to form the raised beds and the self-setting aggregate surface that we’ve used for the paths. The rough surfaces of both act as mollusc deterrents – although I’m sure that in time they will use imported plants as their own version of the wooden horse and mount an invasion from within. In the autumn I will paint the wooden fencing in the same gray to alleviate the urban brutalist effect – just haven’t had time yet. In the meantime it is such a pleasure to sow seeds, watch them grow, pot them on and plant them out without them being chomped to extinction.
