Garden organics

This week, Andy bought the latest in the River Cottage publications entitled 'Veg Plot.' I like this book on many levels -1) it has a nice 'new book' smell (reminiscent of fire lighters, which, as my family knows, I've had a penchant for sniffing for many years now) 2) it feels nice to hold 3) it has pretty pictures 4) it is easy to read/ understand and 5) it looks nice sitting next to the previous 3 books we've already got in the series on making bread, jam and preserving and mushroom hunting. It is a book I wish I'd had access to when we first took over our allotment. I suspect it will become my 'veg growing bible.'

I zipped through the book in a couple of evenings and immediately on its advice, set out to buy some more seeds - borlotti beans, broccoli and chives, and companion plants for each veg group bed, namely tagetes and nasturtiums. And because of the companion planting idea i.e inter-planting flowers and/ or herbs with your crops in order to deter or distract harmful pests and bugs away from the plants you want to remain bug-free, I've started delving deeper into the aspect of organic pest control.

Of course, we have already the ultimate in bug destruction units in the forms of Missus Miggins, Slocombe, Pumphrey and Poo. Unfortunately, they also double up as the ultimate seedling destruction units. So I have started to gather together a more trustworthy armoury against the likes of slugs, snails, caterpillars and aphids. These include a squirty spray bottle for filling with soapy water (aphid annihilation), netting for the exclusion of everything from butterflies to birds and a torch, bucket and rubber gloves for twilight slug picking.

It's the slugs that bother me the most. As I gaze fondly at the seedling activity in the greenhouse, at the tiny new plants reaching up, full of hope and promise, into the warm spring air I feel sick at the thought that within a couple of hours of them being exposed to the elephants, I mean elements, to be hardened off for planting outside, they will be chewed back to pathetic stumps by slimy, characterless, prolific slugs. I made the mistake last year of picking up a slug with my bare hands and it took three hours to wash the slime off. Okay, three hours might be exaggerating the point but take my advice and NEVER, NEVER pick up a slug without protective hand gear. YUK! YUKKITY YUK YUK YUK!! Even the thought of naked slug handling makes me feel nauseous. ('It makes us feel nauseous as well,' say the slugs, 'especially after your post-shower escapade on the landing earlier this week.')

So I did intensive research into other methods of organic slug control. Copper barriers seems too expensive for a large area, beer traps seem too indulgent. Salt seems too cruel, as does chopping them in half with a pair of scissors. I settle eventually on two plans of action. Firstly, I am happy to conduct a twilight slug patrol every other day with a bucket. I will take any slugs I find home and the chickens will have a fine breakfast in the morning. I also like the idea of gritty barriers. Slugs don't like crawling over anything gritty. I expect it's because they don't wear pants. We've already got one side of the allotment protected by the gritty barrier of the gravel drive that runs alongside our plot. So all I need to do is scatter a layer of grit around my tender plants as soon as they go in the ground.

Which explains what I was doing yesterday afternoon.

Go on. Guess. Guess what I was doing. Free jar of homemade marmalade if you get it right.

I was peeling the membranes from the inside of the used eggshells I've been saving for a fortnight, placing the eggs shells on a baking tray in the sun, drying them out and then crushing them to grit-like proportions in order to create my own slug barrier medium. It was time-consuming, it was fiddly, it was quite slimey on occasion and I know EXACTLY what you are thinking. You are thinking, 'What a time-consuming, fiddly and slimey way to spend time. She needs to find a job, that Denise.'

And I would say you are right. BUT this is what I achieved from the exercise. I recycled the shells, I will feed the soil with calcium, I have got a free slug barrier and most of all, it was very pleasant to stand still for an hour or so performing a rhythmic task that didn't require any brain power. It was very therapeutic.

Will it work? I don't know. But I'm going to give it a try.