I'd personally only water in prolonged dry spells, presuming the plants are in the ground and not in tubs. Are the geraniums and salvias perennials or the bedding type ?.

They are the bedding type planted in a bed but they are also in tubs together with tubbed rose bushes. I think I may be over watering. Do you think I need to cut down on the watering ?

Plants in pots do need frequent watering during summer - if the top of the compost is slightly dry to the touch, water, and water well. As for plants in the ground, you're saying they're bedding plants, so they will need frequent watering, but its best to water every few days with a sprinkler and leave it running for 20-30 minutes rather than walking round with the spray gun on the end of the hose every day.

Your slugs and snails will still be around, but a LIGHT sprinkling of pellets once a week should keep them under control. If you use the more expensive Eraza version, they're water resistant anyway.

Watering everyday sounds excessive. Keep in mind that plants also breathe via roots. Do you get rain? Plants should be fine for a few days when you get rain. Adding a layer of mulch would conserve water too. You can obtain slug control at the garden center. Diatomaceous Earth works very well.

Remember that blackbirds and thrushes eat slugs, as well as hedgehogs so your slug pellets can be poisonous to them as well as the slimy creatures. Do you really want to kill other creatures too?

Thanks so much for all of your comments. I will take them on board xx

Arbuthnot - what you've said is incorrect. I too, like everyone else, thought that slug pellets killed birds. After someone querying that as being true or not, last year I checked it out with the RSPB. To my surprise, they do not kill birds - it seems most birds simply don't eat them, and even if they did, they'd have to consume the equivalent of a tablespoonful before they felt sick, never mind died, so even if they eat any slugs that are dead from slug pellets, the birds will be fine.

The biggest problem with slug pellets is their misuse - people sprinkle enough to make the whole of the soil look blue in patches, and it simply isn't necessary - a very light sprinkle is more than enough.

You need to water more to begin with to let your annuals establish, say the first 2 weeks after planting, depending of course on the weather. Once you notice them growing away you can ease off the watering. Geraniums need less watering than most annuals. They can endure dry spells far better.

As Bamboo said there's no proof that slug pellets kill birds, although I don't suppose it does them any good either. Four or five pellets around a plant is enough. I'm surprised slugs are going for your geraniums. They normally leave them alone.

I oftendon't water geraniums anything like every day and they seem quite happy. Although watering in the evenings better slugs do like damp conditions so you could experiment with watering in the morning and see if it makes any difference