The battle with slugs and snails is over. (Hopefully)

Long winded (sorry)
So, I have a walled border between our house and next door in full sun. On their side is mainly big overgrown hedges. (Not gardeners) Each night an army of snails come over the wall. Chomp on all my flowers and plants then head back off in the morning. The slugs hiding under some ground cover plants are huge. In wet weather there are literally hundreds. This year nothing has survived in that border. A salvia Amistad can't even get going. All my dahlia are just stalks. Everything I have put in apart from a hebe look a mess or have dissapeared and I'd had enough. I don't want to use pellets as we saw a huge healthy hedgehog on the lawn last week and we have a dog that will eat anything. So last night I looked online and a few plants came up that are meant to be left alone by the little blighters. So off I went to the GC this morning and bought 3 varieties of Hydrangea paniculata, sedum, Buddleja and lots of different Penstemon. At 11am this morning I dug all the Dahlia out and potted them up. Removed all the ground cover plants and potted up the salvia hoping it will recover I refreshed the soil with mpc (it can get a little dry with the wall) and planted like I've never planted before. After a good watering I finished at 6pm shattered. I'm hoping when they all pop over this evening for their nightly buffet they get a big surprise and sod off back over the wall. I know it's going to take time (years) before these plants get going but at least they will be able too. I would love any other suggestions or recommendations for plants that aren't munched like full sun and free draining neural soil as there are a few gaps that need to be filled.

 

Kudos for all your hard work. And there's nothing to prevent you from leaving pellets on the top of the wall. I assume it's too high for the dog and the hedgehogs. Stop any further invasions !

 

Thank you @CanadianLori I'm going to do that tomorrow. Brilliant idea

 

Thanks @JWK much appreciated

 

I have a similar problem I see the slugs / snails crossing the little road / garage site access to my garden , they play hell with that particular border. I really want to have a Rudbeckia herbstone in that border , it got demolished immediately so I tried again but grow on into a much larger plant which I would highly recommend in combating slugs and snails, the rudbeckia still gets eaten but its now large enough to take it .

What sort of colours are you after Jasmine ? Shrubs or perennials ?
What sort of hydrangea P did you get I am just being nosy

 

Hi @Perki it's soul destroying isn't it. I've tried many different plants for 2 years. Most gone. Ive just looked up the rudbeckia you mentioned. Its beautiful so may give it a go. I put in today hydrangea paniculata limelight x2 and a wims red. A Buddleja buzz indigo. 4 penstemon burgundy, Arabesque violet and firebird. The Hebe already there is a silver queen. There are 2 large mature helichrysum with yellow flowers in there too so as you can see I'm not that fussy with colour and mainly perennials. I'm just happy if they don't get eaten. Is there anything else in your border that's doing well?

 

Sorry I wasn't recommending the Rudbeckia its still slug fodder as are the other rudbeckias unless large plants , just saying larger plant are more resistant to the onslaught .

Hydrangea Limelight excellent choice I have it also , I have mine planted with Persicaria september spires but all Persicaria amplexicaulis will look good and slug proof , may need a bit of watering to start with but are fine afterwards , fat domino - blackfield and other red varieties , Alba will look nice with a different shape.

Erygiums are usually fine front to mid front of the border look good with sedums, big blue is very nice .

Echinops are fine - Veitch blue ( around 1m tall ) and taplow blue which can get taller are well recommend , if you want a giant echinops Tjanschianicus is huge and can be grown from seed and so can the bob standard echinop Rito . These will look good with the hydrangea . Also Pervoskia will look good with Echinops / hydrangea

Aconitum stainless steel - A. napellus are summer flowering and A.arsendii group are late Highly poisons if eaten .

Nepetas are excellent walkers low is very good and look well with penstemons

Helianthus they dont eat mine - Geums - Anemones japonica and the swan series - crocosmia - coreopsis - geraniums lots to pick from mine favourites and long flowering are Patrica - Ann folkland - ann thompson - rozanne - orion . Achillea - Euphorbia - Astrantia red do best in full sun they don't eat mine but heard they been eaten before . Heuchera / tiarella - Veronciatrums fantastic plants don't like it to dry though they go with everything same with Phlox . Agapanthus they are some hardy varieties navy blue is one - Poppies - bergenia - liriope - Hellebores - primula - sanguisorba like it a bit moister but never seen a slug touch them - Selinum Wallichanum - Roses - Peonys - Acanthus ? - aster monch is fine and I think all the others are ok go for the Novae group I believe they are more resistant to powder mildew . Thalictrums and all Grasses are slugs proof .

That will keep you busy for a while until I think of something else

 

Have you considered digging a moat? Sounds like a lot of work, but slugs won't crawl through water. So take an old rain gutter, set it up alongside the border (make sure no slugs can go under it) and fill it up. Your birds and hedgehogs will love that water supply.

 

This is amazing @Perki thanks so much
Lots to have a look at

@Black Dog never crossed my mind. What a fab idea. If they don't get the message this is my next option. Thanks

 

Urk
I guess I will have to use my own advice in the future... Slugs are at an all time high this year. Last year was probably too dry for them to be comfortable but this one is hell.
I collected almost 1.5 kilogram (!) in slugs yesterday alone. I usually put water and dish soap in a small bucket and just throw the slugs in, let them sit a little bit and flush em down the toilet to get rid of them forever. But I was curious so I weighed the bucket before and after.

And those are only the ones I found

 

@Black Dog I feel for you. It's been the same here. (They are huge) Sadly that's why I had to dig out what was left of plants and replace them with resistant ones. So far they are doing well. I did leave in a couple of penstemon firebird and they have been reduced to twigs

 

My sunflowers have been ravaged this year. Out of two dozen, only 5 grew up to my hip and out of those only one (!) survived till blooming. The others are little less than sad sticks that started wilting.

My courgettes, cucumbers paprika, chili and even pumpkins where eaten within a single night and my tomatoes succumbed after 2 weeks.

 

My sunflowers weren't much better. I had three, all in the same plot, get up to 6ft and produce multiple heads one of these was self sown from last year, how the seedling got missed by the molluscs is a mystery. In the same area the courgettes lasted a week or so, but the pumpkins have been pretty much ignored, so far.
In the greenhouse slugs have snuck in and munched a number of ripe tomatoes.
As for ornamentals some have been ignored and other's hammered.

 

Google 'slug pub'. Brew your own bait.

Slugs are even eating squash flowers before they can be pollinated, or eating the whole flower including stigma shortly after pollination, perhaps too soon for the squash to develop.