Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Does copper tape work for keeping slugs away? I'd like to stop them joining the family guinea pigs and raiding their food. The Internet seems to have opinions both ways. Perhaps works better with two layers wired up to 9V? Or is there something better?

I tried it on my beds and the fuckers just slimed all over it. Only thing I've found they don't like is wool.

Last night I watched a juicy bastard slither happily over a mound of coffee grounds. Had no luck with copper many years ago. Will try wool! Not cotton wool? Do I need to do twee little crochet scenarios around my plants?

I don't think it does anything really, no.

However we did get some tape which had a serrated edge and I expect if you fold out those serrations to act as a ring of spikes then it might work.

Can you train the guinea pigs to eat slugs?

My technique is to send slugs and snails on a flying lesson into the railway line behind the house.

I used the the stuff they sell for you to put out for the birds for nesting. I stuck it around my dahlias and they never touched them.

However we did get some tape which had a serrated edge and I expect if you fold out those serrations to act as a ring of spikes then it might work.

Slug scale razor wire? Could work, will investigate.

One thing that did work was my hipster variation on the beer trap. A bit of sourdough starter in a small pot of water eliminated those little black slugs from a fairly large planter in a couple of nights

This works well for us on raised beds

https://www.slughelp.com/electric-slug-fence/

If you are flinging them over a fence you need a good throwing arm.
Need to move them a minimum of 65 ft or they'll return "home",not as impressive as homing pigeons,but not bad.
Good Luck!

I threw a slug 150m last Xmas, it knocked on my door at Easter and called me a cunt.

Probably a Brexit supporting slug,angry that you hadn't thrown it 164 yards

We have rabbits so similar

We can’t compost all of it but during the summer every other week gets used on the compost. Can also just use their litter weekly which is high in nitrogen. They tend to poop in one place so easy to empty just litter. Guinea pigs tend to just shit everywhere right? Harder to separate it out amongst the hay and sawdust etc but it would count as a ‘green’.

Sawdust takes a while to break down too so avoid as much as poss

You'd have to throw a rabbit a couple of miles probably.

threw a slug 150m last Xmas, it knocked on my door at Easter and called me a cunt.

Joke thread post #1

Planting garlic also helps, but that's a bit much if it's a for a guinea pig house. Succesfully protected my dahlia coming back up from soil.

I need to try the bird nest material, I bought a lovely Cardinal flower and the snails are decimating it :/

3/6 dahlia are out flowering..no pom poms yet. I begin to think the pom pom seeds on the packet is false advertising ;)

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They exist. I'm sat next to one right now

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Nice!

But mine are not as promised ;)

Or do they need another year?

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I think these were bought as tubors so I don't know but I'm pretty sure we've grown from seed and had them flower the same year

We have finally found a successful way to deal with our ridiculous slug population. 3 runner ducks! They could not be happier than when I throw them a handful of slugs from the veg patch. We haven't let them wander through it free range yet, but apparently they won't eat anything you grow except lettuces.

That is awesome. How do you prevent them from being the middle rung of a slug, duck, fox food chain?

We've got a 1.1m high electric fence around them at the moment. They also have a metal enclosure that we can herd them into at night, but the guy who reared them and gave them to us said the electric fence was enough to protect his ~30 chickens and a few ducks. I'm sure it'll be a learning experience, but for now they seem happy and safe.

Awful rainy July here, so only 3 are flowering. But none are pom poms.

Ah well, one is a nice ombre and one a lovely pink. I will just keep the ones I like, donate the rest locally and then sow the rest of the seeds next year :)

Had to keep them on a windowsill until grown more cos the f-ing slugs! Argh! A nice dry spot in the roofspace and sawdust await them once the leaves die back.

Some foxes will dig under normal fences and quite deep.

But perhaps they won't do that with an electric fence?

I'm hoping that the combo of nice heavy clay soil and the electric will keep them out. If one does get in then I think I just have to accept it's part of life.

Foxes are excellent at digging. If there’s a way to get into the enclosure it will find it.

Very cool idea subbing the pest control out though

Anyone have experience planting beds near a pond? Our zealous gardener dug out all of a plant he said was invasive (although had been in the same place for 2 years....) and now I have a big gap, trying to get ideas what would look nice. The spot gets quite a bit of sun so doesn't seem easy