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What a magnificent year it's been for slugs. The slug population on my plot is reaching epidemic proportions, with many at least the size of small elephants - well 10cm or more in length anyway.I'm so disheartened by their relentless devouring of my

as these lovely, helpful insects I've also got a good smattering of the not-so-helpful varieties of wildlife, such as slugs, snails, chafer beetles and assorted aphids.I've also spotted a few cabbage white butterflies hovering around my brassicas. It's hard

My recent rant about this year's plague of slugs obviously touched a raw nerve with British allotmenteers. I'm clearly not alone in feeling ground down by the enormity of the problem.Now, as if to confirm that nature is gaining the upper hand on my

as the seedlings are not attacked by slugs. Last year this was a real problem, and many of my young vegetable plants were lost to slugs and snails.When sowing seeds outdoors, it's important to prepare the soil well, fork it to a fine tilth and rake it level

After a slow start my runner beans are finally off and away and are producing a late but very welcome crop. At the start of the season I wondered if they were going to get past the first post (or up the first foot or so of cane actually). Slugs

overnight those buds have burst into the prettiest lemon-coloured blooms. I've left them for the moment as I don't need that bed until I put my beans in, which aren't yet big enough to survive the attentions of slugs. After last year's rain there seem

to slug damage when sown directly into the ground. So now, I have a huge number of brassicas to transplant: purple sprouting broccoli, two varieties of kale, Brussels sprouts, calabrese and Romanesco broccoli(which is, strictly speaking, a cauliflower

from slugs and snails) and planted them out when they had a good clump of leaves. I always grow lettuces in a well-drained (and less slug-prone) bed close to my shed, so I can keep an eye on them.I tend to try a few new lettuce varieties each year

for something easier to grow like courgettes. I think it's a combination of cooler temperatures slowing down germination and the wet weather increasing slug and snail populations beyond belief - certainly around the misty damp hills of Bath anyhow! I wonder

to be about right for me and Lizzy.As to other crops, we're madly trying to eat up all the lettuces and salad stuff which has grown fantastically this year, once they grew beyond the reach of the slugs and snails. Paul's sick of the sight of salad leaves