Slugs and snails.

The gardens were infested with slugs and snails. If you walked on a wet night you could hear the scrunch on trampled shells. So 10 years ago I went out on damp nights with a torch and bagged all I could see. At first I captured many hundreds, until numbers finally dropped to single figures. Numbers have been manageable since. I now bag them when I see them. If you release them back to the wild, for the thrushes, find a wilderness rather than cause someone else a problem. I occasionally use Doff 'Slug Attack' white pellets (child and pet friendly) sprinkled thinly to protect new plants, which works. I have found that hostas planted in clay pots sprayed with WD40 works wonderfully as slugs and snails will not climb up (but beware overhanging foliage). The new treatment is to use garlic - either or both to plant garlic cloves in your bed of susceptible plants; and to boil a few cloves in 2 pts of water, bottle the water and add a half cup to a 2 gallon watering can to water any plants in danger. Google slug + garlic and you will see it has been researched. Slugs and snails seem to smell plants they enjoy, but cannot through the garlic. Garlic deters slugs, and may also prevent them thriving and be the basis of future organic treatments. Good luck.

Wildlife

Star of the open weekend was the pond with a colony of newts (not Great Crested). Also dragonflies and other smaller mayflies are common. Click on both pictures for best effect.

Phygelius and penstemon

This phygelius, Winchester Fanfare, is one of our few happy phygelius plants, growing in a small pot with roots going through into clay. I might try treating others like this - it seems to contain it too. The penstemon ovatus is a survivor from a penstemon collection which has not been overjoyed with our soil. More on penstemon's later.

The next phase

This is the stage 2 project - two natural springs provide boggy conditions beyond the little veg patch. Now overgrown, it is hiding the greenhouse (Hartley Botanic, 17x12 foot, my wife's 60th birthday present) about which more later. The bog is full of yellow iris, hemerocallis and bullrush, with a couple of Gunnera manicata, one 25 years old but still quite small in spite of having its feet in water.

Paul's Himalayan Musk

The star of recent weeks is the rambling rose Paul's Hamalayan Musk, climing through and old apple tree, the last survivor of an apple orchard. So this tree flowers twice and produces cooking apples.

Rambling Rector

The rose Rambling Rector grows on an Agriframe tunnel but has escaped into a flowering malus, as has a white wisteria, so the tree flowers three times in different months. The rose Salmon Leap is growing through the canopy.

The garden at a glance

The garden is about three quarters of an acre, with varied conditions and soils. The best is loam, the worst solid clay. Situated on a hill, it is terraced which provides the opportunity to create rooms on different levels. It is not kept 'tidy' because it is a habitat for friendly wildlife, with seed heads and not a few good looking wild flowers, including a rarely seen white form of Herb Robert (geranium robertianum). A weekend bird-count came to 40 species. We collect plants so use soil space to the full. I am retiring from full-time work, which has provided time to get started. Here are pictures of the back and the front.