Snails begone!

Our horticultural editor, Penny Woodward, protects her plants from snails and slugs by using copper collars around short lengths of downpipe. She cuts the pipe with a hacksaw and then puts the sticky backed copper tape around them. She then places one pipe around each plant. The snails and slugs crawl up the pipe and because of their slimy foot get a kind of electric shock and fall off. It doesn’t kill them, but stops them eating your vulnerable seedling. Penny even put together a video with the help of her son for a previous article written on this subject, which you can access here.

Another option you can consider is chickens and ducks — although you’ll need to do some research before taking on either of these. If ducks appeal, Paul Healy’s article ‘Duck Fits the Bill’ has detailed information about this option.