Hosta - Blue Cadet

Lovely - and no slug damage! How do you do it?

I can't believe how little slug damage there is this year Oji....I started with slug pellets on valentines day - as was advise here on GOY - got a few beer traps down now but only under the lupins. I started using a whole lot less slug pellets last year - usually only put 4 or 5 around each plant.
Been weeding the borders all week and moving some plants (totally wrong time but needs doing) to make room for my new pond and have found only a fraction of what I would normally. I always have a bucket of salty water with me when I do the weeding!
The hostas which are currently in pots get a weekly spritz of half strength miracle gro to toughen up the leaves. They are all fine but it seems to leave them with a glossy sheen and they don't look good in pictures but you can barely notice it with the naked eye. I picked this tip up on tinternet last year.
Also found out recently there is a family of hedgehogs living in neighbours garden - under all his ''piles'' of stuff. Hence I thought the pond would be off benefit to the hedgehogs and me (in the long run)
THB Oji....I don't have a definitive answer for you and sorry for such a long reply :))

WHats the salty water for? Great the slugs havent been at this //I'm jsut waiting for them to attack my one. I jsut shake the pellet container all over the place. and i psrayed the tree with cider vinegar for the damn snails!
Cant wait to see your pond! :)

Having the hedgehogs is probably the answer...they love slugs and snails. And I once watched one munching its way through a wasp's nest!

Maybe you need to get a hedgehog, Pix? ;)

Thanks for that, Scottish. I like long answers! Really helpful.

I think also, the more shade you give the Blue hosta's the bluer they get and produce a thicker waxy coating on the leaf, making them less appealing to slugs.

Thanks all...
Pixi, the salty water is to drop the slugs and snails into, they die! Did the cider vinegar work against the snails?
All the plants are now moved to make way for the pond. Was going to start digging out today but ended up having to go pick up neice from school as she was unwell and I didn't want to start getting up to my backside in mud and have to run in and out checking on her. She'll be here tomorrow, though hopefully feeling better so maybe I can get on. Their school now has a rule that if they get sent home they must be off for 48 hours incase its a bug!
Karen, we'll need to pitch in and buy Pixi her very own hedgehog :)) I take it they eat wasps too. I learn something new on here every day :))
Your welcome Oji :)
You could be onto something there P...another blue one gets a wee bit more sun than this and has minor damage. Was going to lift this one for the pond but may choose the other one now. I'm all betwix and between which ones to choose!!!!

No..still they come! tried lots of remedies but nothing works..dont want to use anything too harmful as there are blackbirds nesting in there i think..you;d think they would eat them!!! oh ahedgehog? lol SUki wouldnt go fo r that anyway lolol

Back to the drawing board re the snails then. There must be something that eats them. You would think that there would be some really strong wee scottish birdie that would crack those shells and munch away!

Garlic spray starting in january and going on through the year is meant to help get rid of them...I think Moongrower has a formula.

Must have a wee look....does it make the garden smell of Garlic P?

No really I dont think..

Bloomer was asking a few days ago I see.

http://www.growsonyou.com/question/show/74832

or just type Garlic Spray in the search box.

Cheers P...just remembered a question I asked last year. I wonder if this has helped keep the population down.
http://www.growsonyou.com/question/show/54062

Anything that helps is a bonus :))

The French use garlic spray for small insects - thrips, white/black fly, aphids etc. I've used it - but resorted to chemicals in the end, because the infestation of thrips was that bad on one particular rose. The garden didn't smell...but the kitchen did!!

Not for long though. :)

And you could well be right about those beetles, Scottish. Have you been breeding them over the winter?? :)))

I'd have to buy the ready made spray - I cannae even peel an onion :))
I do hope those wee beasties done the job K. Not breeding them but hoping they come back this year :)

They used to come into my living room in the old house, Scottish...
We had an old stone sink in the window ledge and they kept coming up the pipe. I think if you had them last year, they'll be hiding somewhere like that until it's time to come out again.

Of course, if I had read all this, I would probably have felt differently about them at the time! lol!