Catmint

I visited Kenwood House, Hampstead recently. In the old kitchen garden they'd planted huge swathes of Catmint. I have never seen so many bumblebees in all my days; there must have been hundreds happily gathering nectar. I went straight on to the garden centre in Highgate & bought a nice bushy plant for the garden. A week or so later it was a pretty forlorn, flattened specimen. This would be something to do with..

So much for being wildlife-friendly

Having put these so-called 'organic' slug pellets down, I've realised how much that contradicts the notion of having a wildlife friendly garden. Back to the drawing board...

Public Enemy No 1, part 1

I'm engaged in a war of attrition with slugs & snails right now. I'm losing, big time. My smallest hollyhocks (still potted up) were decimated a few days ago. And 2 of my 3 Burnet plants. Less ribaldry to be had there then. I'd made the mistake of leaving them out overnight, forgetting that snails love to munch on young, tender plants when it's dark. Today I checked outside and the Marigolds I'd potted up as companion-plants-in-waiting to my tomatoes had disappeared. A few smug-looking slugs were still hanging about by them and in my potato planter.

And this is despite my Marigold pots being carefully bound in copper tape. This is supposed to create a charge uncomfortable to the little buggers if they try to cross. I guess that if they're hungry enough they will put up with some discomfort to get to their munchies. So now it's on to slug pellets compatible with organic gardening, to wit 'Growing Success Advanced Slug Killer', a a bait containing ferric phosphate which kills them off. We'll see if they work - but there's only one Marigold plant left to save at the moment and that looks pretty forlorn!

According to the RHS ' Most plants, once established, will generally tolerate slug damage and control measures can be discontinued' - I think Marigolds are possibly not in the 'most plants' category!