How to make a garlic wash to banish vampire slugs into the shadows - Gardening with Brendan

As I write this I’m trying for the third day in a row to film a little video outdoors to go along with it. But it’s been raining heavy all day again (Sunday) with no real sign that a change is going to come any time soon.

And as many a gardener will tell you, bad weather makes for poor plants. In fact, almost everything seems to be in a state of stagnation at the moment. I’ve lot of buds on young flower, fruit and vegetable plants but they seem to be keeping their sepals firmly shut and holding out until the sun returns before they show themselves to the world. Smart little fellas.

A particularly windy day this week meanwhile has claimed some of the youngest plants in the garden. I planted a good few giant sunflowers a few weeks ago – a Mexican, edible variable that can grow up to about 14 feet apparently. As expected a few were instantly set upon by slugs but the others that did survive that onslaught were no match for the nor’wester blowing in and wrecking havoc, snapping stems and blowing pots and copper tape rings all over the place. A few young cosmos plants suffered the same fate as the sunflowers. But it could have been a lot worse.

Thankfully I have held some sunflower seedlings back in the little greenhouse and they are shooting up. They will need to go into the ground soon but I’m hoping they will be made of stronger stuff by then and I’ve been brewing a secret weapon to send the vampiric slugs and snails with their little sharp teeth fleeing into the shadows if they dare come near them: garlic wash.

Some gardeners swear by it, some don’t rate it that much but a journalistic colleague from up the country was telling me it was the only thing they found that worked so I thought I’d give a go. And it seems to be doing the trick so far. Here’s what I did based on the different methods others have been suggesting online.

Garlic wash

First order of business was a trip to the supermarket for a multi-pack of garlic bulbs. I got three of them for under £1 and that’s the only cost I incurred with this eco-friendly slug repellent.

Then it is just a matter of taking two whole bulbs, pulling the cloves apart and bashing them with something or crushing them under a knife and throwing them into a pan of water. After that just cover the pan and bring to the boil and then leave the concoction to cool down. Once it is cooled, I removed the sodden, cooked garlic cloves (some of which I reused in a pasta sauce, and the rest I mashed into Flora along with mixed herbs to make garlic butter) and strained the garlic stock by placing paper towels inside a plastic sieve to get any gritty bits out.

I then poured roughly 40 mls (five tablespoons) of the refined liquid and poured it into a little spray bottle, filling the rest with cold water and it was off to the garden to gave the most vulnerable plants – in my case sunflowers, marigolds, oxeye daisies and dahlias – a good soaking.

The plus side of doing this is that in theory it should definitely work and you have a ready made deterrent that will not kill either the gastropods or the birds, hedgehogs, frogs and other creatures that like to feed on slugs and snails. The diluted garlic liquid is also harmless to the plants themselves and slugs and snails hate strong smelling and tasting plants like garlic, lavender, rosemary and most other herbs. The only down side in our climate is that the rain washes it off and that’s grand if the showers are few and far between but when they are every ten minutes like they have been this weekend it means you may need to repeat the application several times a week.

In truth I haven’t had much of a problem with slugs and snails this year but there are some little night-time ninjas lurking and it doesn’t take that many of them to prove fatal to a copse of young plants. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes for me and do let me know if you have any other tricks and tips that you have found effective.

Iceland poppies

When seedlings get munched or fall victim to the elements it can be quite disheartening after all the time and effort it took to get them going, but there was a lovely little rainbow surprise waiting for me when I got home after work one day this week to find the temperamental Iceland poppies (papaver nudicaule) had come of age and opened up in an array of bright, shimmering hues of orange, yellow, apricot, red and white. This strange, hardy little variety is notoriously difficult to grow from seed – I tried years ago and got nowhere- but this time it worked. The tiny seeds were sown back in February, germinated and then sat there doing nothing at all for about 10 weeks straight- just two to four tiny leaves and no growth. I considered dumping them but I’m glad I didn’t as they all took off and matured in the space of about three weeks over May and there is now a mass of flower buds popping up, the first of which have opened and they are already proving a magnet for bumble and honey bees. And sure, that’s what’s it’s all about.