Slug and snail proof gardening

Don't let the slugs and snails get you down! It's not all about beer traps and copper rings, there are numerous other steps you can take.

Make your garden more wildlife friendly by providing ground cover plants and shrubs for beneficial creatures to hide up in, and water to live and drink from.

Songbirds will eat the snails; toads, frogs and hedgehogs will eat the larger slugs; and beetles can take care of the smaller ones.

Even garden features that sometimes come under flak can help: lawns are useful for birds to use to swipe the slime off slugs before they eat them, whilst other birds will appreciate a small patio areas for cracking snail shells on!

You can also fill your borders with plants they are less likely to eat!

For patio pots the best choices are Pelargoniums (zonal geraniums), Begonias and Fuchsias.

Enjoy the cottage garden look with Roses, Lavenders, Hydrangeas, Peonys, Geraniums, Iris and Dianthus (garden pinks) (but avoid Dahlias)

Slug-proof spring colour can come from Daffodils, Tulips, Aquilegia, Euphorbia, Dicentra, Arabis and Armeria

Shade-loving Hostas can suffer from the attention of hungry molluscs, so instead go for ferns, Fuchsias, Heucheras, Hydrangeas, Alchemilla (lady's mantle), Vinca (periwinkle) and Hellebores.

Is there any point throwing slugs and snails over the neighbour's fence? Probably only if it's a wilderness. If you don't want to harm them - and of the UK's 120 types of snails and 45 types of slug only a few cause damage to ornamental plants - then the compost heap is the best place to put them. Slugs and snails play an important role in breaking down old vegetation to return nutrients to the soil, so it could be the solution that keeps everybody happy!

Need to track them down first though? Check the rims of pots and lay down plastic trays in likely damp and dingy spots for a few days!