Hampshire, United Kingdom

Hi there. I am relatively new to gardening and me and my Mum are growing fruits/vegetables in the back garden at the moment. One vegetable we are growing is a courgette plant. I was the main person looking after it, Mum would help trim it when needed and I was watering it a heck of a lot. It was growing very well and I had one courgette coming through and it grew very big, almost ready to pick I think, as the flower on the end had withered back inside and almost vanished. But the next thing I know, it was half eaten by slugs!! My Mum said about using pesticides but she doesn't want to have to do that, she would rather grow them organically. We have more cougettes growing at the moment but they are not at the big, fat size the original courgette was. Yesterday, I found that one of the courgettes was ruined. It looked like the end had wilted. I'm not sure if that was due to slugs as well and there are 2 other cougettes that show signs of slugs nibbling at it. Pesky blighters! How are we supposed to grow these courgettes organically if slugs keep attacking them?

• 8 Jul, 2011