I've read the same, Hosta. But in this context it wasn't about benefiting the plant (well, only indirectly, by not getting eaten!), but to deter slugs etc.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Exactly LG. Looks like they're a bad idea for dealing with slugs.
This garden has more snails than slugs and I've had to move all hostas into pots again because they are exceedingly greedy. Must have thought it was Xmas when I planted them out. In my last garden which was much wetter and cooler there were slugs galore so I used fine but regular scatterings of the wildlife friendly pellets around hostas and emerging clematis, picked them off daffs and hemerocallis and veggies and left the rest to it.
Lots of slugs recycle dead and dying material ad are beneficial to gardens and gardeners as well as providing food for hedgehogs and birds. It's all about finding the balance you need to protect treasures and wildlife and let it all thrive.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
My hostas have flourished this year in a spot under trees in damp heavy clay soil, not a mark on them. The difference is the wildlife. With Thrushes, Black Birds and Hedgehogs they don't seem to have had a chance to increase in numbers, maybe they will resurface in damper weather, but for now everything is beautiful.
While on the subject of snails and fennel, I have given up on fennel. I have thousands of snails in my small garden. The young ones climbed up the fennel stems and stripped them overnight, hiding under the foliage during the day. I simply got fed up with it. I was hoping this hot, dry summer would have done for the snails, but they are now out and about in abundance, especially baby ones.
I had a neglected garden next door with a huge ivy in my last house. The amount of snails that came from it was incredible, the path was nearly silver!
I think it's fair to say I have more Hostas than most folk ( about 1.200 ) and some are damaged now and some are not. It's mid August and I can live with it. I've only used pellets on some in boxes 0.5m high,so too high for Spikey and the frogs to climb,and too densely planted for birds to find them, but I've used none in the garden.
In short - all gardeners, no matter how organic and natural we might think we are, and our plot is, are creating a false environment, so there will always be an impact of some kind. How we 'choose' to manage our gardens is very personal and there's a huge number of factors involved. I choose to avoid chemicals as far as I possibly can, but if I use weedkiller, for example, I'm careful about how I use it. I don't grow too many plants which slugs and snails love- but even so, i love clematis and want to grow them, but molluscs love them, and we have loads because of our environment and weather here. I take reasoanble measures to keep them at bay, but if a clem is knackered, well - that's life. There's always next year. On the whole, I think I've got a reasonably good balance between nature, and a cultivated garden that I also enjoy. After all, I'm not spending all this time and money and effort for nothing
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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This garden has more snails than slugs and I've had to move all hostas into pots again because they are exceedingly greedy. Must have thought it was Xmas when I planted them out. In my last garden which was much wetter and cooler there were slugs galore so I used fine but regular scatterings of the wildlife friendly pellets around hostas and emerging clematis, picked them off daffs and hemerocallis and veggies and left the rest to it.
Lots of slugs recycle dead and dying material ad are beneficial to gardens and gardeners as well as providing food for hedgehogs and birds. It's all about finding the balance you need to protect treasures and wildlife and let it all thrive.
How we 'choose' to manage our gardens is very personal and there's a huge number of factors involved.
I choose to avoid chemicals as far as I possibly can, but if I use weedkiller, for example, I'm careful about how I use it. I don't grow too many plants which slugs and snails love- but even so, i love clematis and want to grow them, but molluscs love them, and we have loads because of our environment and weather here. I take reasoanble measures to keep them at bay, but if a clem is knackered, well - that's life. There's always next year.
On the whole, I think I've got a reasonably good balance between nature, and a cultivated garden that I also enjoy. After all, I'm not spending all this time and money and effort for nothing
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...