Monty Don explains how to protect your garden from snails and slugs

dailyrecord.co.uk:

BBC Gardeners' World presenter Monty Don has shared his latest advice when it comes to slugs and snails, advising people how they can protect their plants from them.In his latest blog, the gardening expert, who also penned The Gardening Book: Monty Don, said that both pests are often seen as the "gardeners' public enemy number one".

While he stressed that slugs and snails are "superb at recycling waste vegetative matter", he added that they do not discriminate between a fallen leaf and a delicious young seedling.There are over 30 species of slug in the UK with four main garden ones,.

The expert stresses that the biggest don't always cause the most damage, and wrote: "What you see is actually a tiny percentage of the population and slug activity and densities of over 250,000 per acre are common."Slugs live largely under ground in the soil and like damp conditions.

Snails live above ground and love dark nooks and crannies such as old brickwork or a nice dry yew hedge, as well as clustering around the base of containers." But there are things that gardeners can do to help their garden flourish - and keep the creatures from undoing your hard work.You should avoid slug pellets and any chemicals that can harm other wildlife.