Grow Your Own - easy slug deterrent

Well I have been very busy not just foraging, cooking and brewing but also in the garden growing our vegetables and herbs.

Our 6yr old has helped plant some of the seeds, watering, weeding and of course he loves to pick and harvest them when they are ready. He loves it when we are eating a meal and some of the ingredients have come from our own garden. It is not just good fun sowing and growing but also educational for him to know where vegetables come from and how to cook them, as i think alot of kids miss out on that. I have watched him in the garden and he will go to the herbs and smell and taste the leaves, it seems his favourite is rosemary :) I love it that he will be passionate about food and cooking as he grows and that he can identify different ingredients.

We are growing quite a variety of vegetables and herbs. We have beetroot, carrots, shallots, lettuce, runner beans, peas, potatoes, swede, turnips, leeks, celery, sweetcorn, cucumbers, squash, peppers, courgettes as well as spinach, tomatoes and strawberries.

The herbs we have planted are some of my favourites that I love to cook with and these are rosemary, sage, mint, chives, lemon thyme, parsley, African blue basil, oregano and a recent addition of a Bay tree. Also this week I was lucky enough to find growing in my herb garden some wild sorrel which is great to use as well.

Although I do love swede in a nice winter stew I have grown a few extra as we are using the leaves as spring greens and they are very tasty chopped and steamed to eat with a roast dinner. They are part of the brassica family so you can use them just like you would spring greens.

But of course with all these lovely greens around and the rain we have had lately you can guarantee that the slugs and snails will rejoice thinking it is a free buffet. As i have two boys i didnt want to use slug pellets as I don't want them picking them up, especially my 9month old. So i have been using a tip my mum taught me which has worked very well. I save all my eggshells, then when i have finished with the oven after cooking something just place the shells on a tray and turn the oven off. This dries the shells making them easy to break up and you can scatter these around the plants you want to protect.

This seems to have deterred them much better than I expected as they must not like crawling over the jagged shells. Not only is it a natural slug and snail deterrent but it saves money buying pellets, its a good way to reduce waste by recycling the shells and as an added bonus when they breakdown the calcium will nourish the soil. It's a solution that has all round benefits and they are the kind of little tips that I like :)

If you would like to learn more about my exploits foraging for free wild food and the recipes I have cooked with my herbs and grow your own then please have a look at some of my other posts :)

baked egg shells 

Swede Leaves