Snails, Bloody Snails! - Beginner Gardener's Memoirs

Snails, bloody snails! The bane of many gardeners and their tender little seedlings, and I'm no exception. They've taken a liking to my tender autumn seedlings, leaving behind a trail of destruction. Spurring on my current experiments to find what would be the best option to get rid of these slimy buggers!

I began with crushed eggshells (which I have at hand for my worm farm) I had read that the snails wouldn't want to go over them because of their rough and sharp edges, so I grab my jar of shells and set off to my little greenhouse. I sprinkled them around my greenhouse, hoping to create a barrier that the snails wouldn't dare to cross. But alas, they proved to be unfazed by the jagged edges, munching away at my seedlings with impunity.

Undeterred, I turned to Vaseline, thinking a slippery barrier might thwart their advances. With a thick layer smeared around the edge of the drip trays, I thought I had outsmarted them. Yet, once again, they slipped past my defenses, leaving behind a scene of devastation.

Frustrated and determined to find a solution, I scoured the internet for alternatives. That's when I stumbled upon a peculiar suggestion: bran flakes. Apparently, snails have a weakness for these breakfast cereals, which expand in their stomachs upon ingestion, causing a rather unpleasant outcome for the pests. I am not going to lie the idea of exploding these little bugger made a little voice in my head manically cackle.

Feeling a mixture of skepticism and desperation, I set off into the pantry cupboard and grabbed out a box of bran flakes and set up a trap, accompanied by a tempting bowl of beer. It felt like a strange ritual, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

As night fell, I tucked my seedlings into the greenhouse once more, hoping that this time, my makeshift defenses would hold. I contemplated camping out under the clothes line with a torch and bucket, but then had to remind myself that this wasn't an SAS course and that I liked the comfort of my bed. The following morning, I approached with cautious optimism, unzipping the greenhouse to reveal the scene within.

To my relief, the seedlings remained untouched, I took a head count and realised that I had the same number of seedlings as yesterday, I let out a yip of glee, WOOHOO! I started to water them, giving them words of encouragment and affirmations, especially the munched on seedlings, then I tucked them in for the day and now we wait with bated breath until tomorrow morning.  

Though the war against snails may not be over, with a bit of creativity and perseverance, I'm determined to protect my little babies from these slimy intruders, one bran flake at a time.

Much love,