By Victoria Plum
A small veg bag pictured below from the Eves Hill Veg Co community market garden (see how fresh and luscious this is) is delivered to a secret location in Cawston, luckily just round the corner from my house, from where I fetch it every week.
I have been using this excellent local service for at least a couple of months and have been impressed by the variety and quality of all the produce. No insect damage at all, and I know that no nasty chemicals have been used in production.
I hope Spanish slugs don’t make it to Booton. I found two this year, juveniles at only three or four inches long (adults are six inches) and so sticky that you can’t just wipe the slime off.
The only way to get rid of them is to hand pick and drown in a bucket of water with soap, detergent, bleach and then bury the contents 18 inches deep.
They are thought to have come in on salad stuff from Spain; none of our usual strategies with slugs will work on these foreigners. All the more reason to buy locally!
Look out for the eggs when clearing up the garden, as they are white rather than the translucent ones of our native slugs and snails.
I wonder whether the Spanish slugs will all be repatriated at 11 pm on 29 March 2019?
Do join us for the next Reepham & District Gardening Club meeting – the Christmas Party – earlier than usual, both date and time, on 11 December at 7 pm at Reepham Town Hall, Church Street, Reepham. We all bring a plate of something nice to eat, and I am already looking forward to the quiz.