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This has been the year for slugs and snails and I've really lost my cool with them. I might try to be a live-and-let-live gardener but I'VE HAD ENOUGH!!Kay blogged about my traps and I have to say that it is now the more the merrier - and wow, am I

to pesticides where possible, so I don't use slug pellets. This season I've discovered the versatility of copper in my battle with Britain's No.1 garden pest. It's been found that copper rings and tape provide an effective barrier across which slugs and snails

In early spring, there were a lot of discussions in the garden media over whether the harsh winter would have reduced numbers of garden pests.The slugs and snails were slow to appear after the cold, dry April. But most other critters, good and bad

second crop from early fruiting plants. I’m hoping the heat will prompt a little more growth of my pumpkins, and will ripen my new Cape gooseberries (Physalis peruviana). And if I’m lucky, the sun will dry out the soil surface and frazzle the slugs

We had a good time, but in the same breath I have to say it's great being back - Matt Biggs and I have just returned from hosting the Gardeners' World magazine Gardening Cruise with 128 fellow gardeners. These trips are always packed full of great

, but venture into the garden and you'll see another side to this menace.Get outside early on cold mornings with camera in hand and you might be lucky enough to capture images of the ephemeral ice crystal patterns and designs left by Jack Frost. They

Who said gardening wasn't easy? Okay, maybe some parts aren't that simple - grafting, propagation, weeding on cliffs, getting rid of slugs and innumerable other things but some aspects of gardens are unbelievably straightforward.Look at this picture

I don’t think my garden could look any worse. The borders I left to rot into themselves have tumbled all over the lawn, the patio is covered in pigeon poo, and there’s now a temporary cardboard compost bin outside my back door because the real bin

I've had a great gardening year. It's hard to imagine my garden now as it was a year ago - a building site, with a huge pile of sand at one end and 200 paving stones and builders' rubble at the other. Then there was an awful lot of mud as we