Fighting Slugs - Feed And Fortify

#### This is a collaborative post ####

Normally when I garden I keep a good equilibrium between my plot and nature but this year nature seems to be winning, and by some margin.

Rabbits keep sneaking in and eating from the ground, pigeons devour from above, but my biggest enemy this year is the slugs from below. They are without mercy and seem to have decided that I can have nothing left when I plant out certain crops. 

I'm trying everything to battle them. The sheep's wool I've used in the past works a bit, although the other day I was doing a "slug hunt" and had to pick a few slugs right off the wool, so they can't be as bothered by it as I would have liked. 

I had been talking about this constant slug battle on twitter and had a thread going with over a  hundred comments when Envii Products got in contact with me to see whether I'd be interested in trying a product. 

Something new to try

Now I've been trying to garden more naturally and slug pellets are the one thing I'm definitely not using, so I was interested in what they had that I could use. I explained that I'm organic and that the children have complete access to the garden unsupervised so it would have to be safe for them as well. 

They suggested Feed and Fortify to meet the criteria I'd set. This product sounded ideal for what we needed, it's based on diatomaceous earth so is completely organic, it also contains iron silicates to feed and improve fertility of the soil. Because of this it's safe to use around pets and children. 

The kids had great fun with this project. And no, the boy can't take a serious photo anymore...

It comes in a pouch and although it's easy to put down using your hands or a simple homemade applicator as it was half term I decided that the kids could invent an applicator for it. They love a craft task and had some great fun thinking up ideas of what they could make. They certainly were inventive with what they came up with and had a great afternoon making them.

"Inventive" But hats off to her, it works well! 

Once they had made them we set to work trying them out. The fact that it's granular means you can see where you've put it and it doesn't get washed away by the first bit of rain. 

My younger daughter made a more simple shaker, but it worked great - just holes in a bottle top!

The girls loved going round protecting the plants, could see where they'd been and they put it down surprisingly evenly. We concentrated on the younger seedlings and ones that the slugs seem to love like the french beans and young brassicas. 

It's early days yet, but so far it's looking good. The plants we've used it round have certainly suffered less slug damage and I've been impressed that after rain it's still there. If it is feeding and strengthening the plants this can only be a good thing as well and will help them stand up to pests as they grow. 

Also although the pouch 400g it's gone a long way, much further than I thought. We have treated quite a few beds and there's still loads left.

I'll keep you posted on how we get on with it. Maybe I will have some lettuce to eat after all! 

What do you like to use against slugs?