It was a hippy idea, anyway.

[supermouse]

So, there's this hippyish organic idea that dandelions, instead of being a scourge, actually draw up minerals from deep down and bring them up to the surface as leaves. And that you can bring these minerals to the top of the soil by trimming the dandelions and dropping the leaves on the ground in your vegetable beds instead of wrecking the soil digging them up.

The idea then goes that the wilted dandelion leaves will be more attractive to slugs than your precious seedlings. Slugs won't touch fresh dandelion, but the hippy idea is that wilted leaves are madly attractive to slugs. Even dandelion leaves.

So, I went out with a torch tonight, and what do you know, it works. My tender plants had slugs making a beeline for them, but where there were wilted leaves on the ground, they'd all gathered there instead.

I still killed them with scissors, but that's really good to know. If wilted dandelion leaves will keep slugs away from my seedlings, then the dandelions can keep on growing, and welcome. Even if they're only being cut-and-come-again salad for slugs.

The thing about the minerals might even be true.

Comments

[ailbhe]

It's a nice thought. Did you kill the slugs with scissors? I don't think I could do that. I'm bad at slugs.

[supermouse]

Ever since I first tried to grow supermarket-tubbed basil outside on a very tight budget, the sheer rage at the damage that slugs can do to edible plants has enabled me to chop them up without a second thought. (Slugs can turn an entire pot of basil into tiny matchstick-sized green stubs literally overnight). It's icky, but scissors keep the ickiness at arm's length and can be scrubbed clean afterwards. I don't feel sorry for them because of sheer hatred and because I want actual food which is a powerful motivator. Chopping seems to be the fastest death that's really possible.

Dandelion leaves do seem to help, but yes, I'll be killing as many as I can as often as I can, because otherwise they'll eat probably several hundred pounds of produce that could be feeding me. I plant things out when they're nice and grown, to discourage slugs, but in some areas of my garden I lose more than half of what I plant out even so.