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New addition to the garden

Lewis TLewis T Posts: 31
in Problem solving

I have a walled garden, over nine foot high and can access it only through a doorway. After solving my slug problem by planting the younger crops in copper circles,I couldn't understand how my lettuces were being devoured. When I folded back the old carpet on my compost container I found a huge black toad. Great, I thought he'll eat my slugs. We get rather a lot in wet Wales. Then I realised he may be the culprit eating my lettuces. Don't ask me how he got into the garden. Can they jump high enough to get out of the compost container and will it also deplete the worms in the compost. I found several huge fat slugs in there too so it's not feasting on those. I'm not sure what to do now.

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  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    Toads are completely carnivorous and eat mainly insects and the odd slug, so it won't be old toady eating your crops.  I think your lettuces are still being eaten by slugs as copper barriers, while offering a degree of deterrence, are far from the perfect slug protection.  Your best bet is to go out at night (which is when slugs are active) with a torch and pick them off by hand (disposable gloves are good if you don't like touching them.)  What you do with them after that is up to you, but they will return if you simply move then elsewhere.  They get 'the snip' from a pair of secateurs here and laid to rest in the compost heap. image

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Lewis TLewis T Posts: 31

    Thanks Bob, I am relieved as I have wanted more wild life in my organic garden. I do pick the huge slugs out of my compost container with a pair of tongs and drop them into a jar of salted water and often leave a plank on the garden and have counted as many as 14 underneath.

     I recently sunk an old clay sink in the ground with sloping sides and rescued a small younger toad this morning as he couldn't climb up the shiny sides. I've put a forked branch in now so that he can climb out of that if he gets stuck again. 

    Pansyface, Re crawling under the gate, it's a proper door, but I was curious so I had a good look this morning and found that my builder had left a three inch gap between the public park and our new high wall so that could explain it.

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    Slugs are an ongoing problem for gardeners Lewis, and they're in the soil all the time so you just have to keep working at it - we all have our own ways of dealing with them but Mr Toadie will be a big asset in the fight!  With a bit of luck there might be a Mrs Toadie and then lots of little toadies...image

    If you have some nice damp places for them to hide they'll be very happy there. I used to disturb them all the time when renovating areas round the edge of a pond at last house. They'd be hiding in little holes below rocks out of the heat. image

    Why not take the sink a bit further and put a little pond in? We're very partial to a wildlife pond on here...image

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Lewis TLewis T Posts: 31

    Hi Fairygirl, I once created a lovely pool in my cottage garden (sadly sold now) and the man next door was a great help in giving us advice. He ran an estate on the Gower Peninsular. We even managed to fill it from a natural spring just up the road.  On my North wall in my town garden I have placed a large sunken stone sink which is shallow, in the shade of a silver birch tree, alongside evergreen shrubs so there are plenty of places for them to hide. Blackbirds bathe in it every day at about 5 pm. Also on the patio there is a huge beaten copper circular moon pool with lilies, and I have placed a large stone inside so they could climb out if necessary. But there is no room for a large pool as I have given one third over to growing organic vegetables.

     

     

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,134

    I would leave the big slugs in the compost heap - they help to break down the organic matter and big slugs tend to only eat decaying stuff rather than fresh young vegetation.  They also eat small slugs.  

    When I find big slugs in the garden I often put them in our compost heaps. image

    Big slugs are image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Lewis TLewis T Posts: 31

    Best news yet thanks.

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    Lewis - your two pool/mini ponds sound absolutely beautiful. The wildlife will love you for them and I bet you enjoy watching those blackbirds. I've gone from having an average sized pond in a previous garden, to a huge pond with a second one feeding off it in my last garden, and back to a tiny pond in the making at this new house I'm in. The pleasure from watching birds and wildlife of all sorts is immeasurable. Among the best times I've had this summer have been watching the birds take a bath in the tiny temporary birdbath and the sparrow having a dust bath in a bare bit of soil! 

    Or maybe I need to get out more...image

    I've just heard that they're about to talk about giant slugs on the BBC news image

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Lewis TLewis T Posts: 31

    I was on holiday and out of contact when your message came through so missed the BBC news on slugs. Thanks for your comments though.  

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