What edibles can I try in containers next year in my small garden,
which will not get eaten by slugs and snails?
Bean leaves mostly eaten,so no beans so far, lettuce have all gone, I
have some rocket and spinach coming on, but it's a bit disheartening.
Picked 6 pea pods today, put the peas on to cook and forgot them and
let the pan boil dry. I'd eaten all the previous ones raw but these
were a bit bigger.
Tomatoes at last setting fruit. Fingers crossed I don't get blight
yet!

Pam in Bristol

Peas and broad beans are not immune, but are more slug resistant than runners and french. Try mange-tout or sugar snap, so you can eat the pods too. I've been growing a variety from Real Seeds which has HUGE pods - about 5 inches long - and nice purple flowers, at that's doing very well in a pot about 15 inches square and 18 inches deep.

Carrots are OK. Radishes don't get slugged, but don't seem to do well in containers. Swiss chard does well, also purple sprouting (though you may have problems with caterpillars).

Chicory doesn't seem to get slugged once it's god to about 4 inches tall, I don't know about younger.

I've been growing Sarpo Mira potatoes which are reputed to be slug resistant, and they do seem to be. But they're very floury so not to everyone's taste.

"Pam Moore" wrote ...

What edibles can I try in containers next year in my small garden,
which will not get eaten by slugs and snails?
Bean leaves mostly eaten,so no beans so far, lettuce have all gone, I
have some rocket and spinach coming on, but it's a bit disheartening.
Picked 6 pea pods today, put the peas on to cook and forgot them and
let the pan boil dry. I'd eaten all the previous ones raw but these
were a bit bigger.
Tomatoes at last setting fruit. Fingers crossed I don't get blight
yet!


Pam, I'm a great advocate of growing Carrots in containers for two reasons,
firstly you can keep them up and away from the carrot root fly and secondly
it allows you to give the carrots the sort of sandy open soil they like. The
latter is especially good if, like us, you garden on heavy clay/silt (now
concrete due to the dry).
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On Sat, 27 Jul 2013 08:17:10 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

"Pam Moore" wrote ...

What edibles can I try in containers next year in my small garden,
which will not get eaten by slugs and snails?
Bean leaves mostly eaten,so no beans so far, lettuce have all gone, I
have some rocket and spinach coming on, but it's a bit disheartening.
Picked 6 pea pods today, put the peas on to cook and forgot them and
let the pan boil dry. I'd eaten all the previous ones raw but these
were a bit bigger.
Tomatoes at last setting fruit. Fingers crossed I don't get blight
yet!


Pam, I'm a great advocate of growing Carrots in containers for two reasons,
firstly you can keep them up and away from the carrot root fly and secondly
it allows you to give the carrots the sort of sandy open soil they like. The
latter is especially good if, like us, you garden on heavy clay/silt (now
concrete due to the dry).

I sowed some carrot seed in a big pot. Germination: 1 carrot!

Pam in Bristol

Pam Moore" wrote in message
. ..

I sowed some carrot seed in a big pot. Germination: 1 carrot!

Pam in Bristol


I have just sowed some in an ex-supermarket crate (green) -- two ft off the
ground.
Random method - half a packet about.

Germination -- lots hopefully !!

Will report later (:-)

Pete

Off topic - but I saw a lovely display at Leeds uni yesterday, a large raised bed full (jam-packed) of white umbellifers. I went for a closer look, and the soft leaves and central red flower in each head identified them as wild carrot.

kay wrote:
Carrots are OK. Radishes don't get slugged, but don't seem to do well
in containers. Swiss chard does well, also purple sprouting (though you
may have problems with caterpillars).

My carrots got munched by slugs and snails, straight across every single
row of them last year. This year everything was nemaslugged before I
put out, and we have done so much better. Last year was a total disaster.
:-(

Radishes don't seem to get slugged, but they do get that beetley thing
that munches through the leaves and leaves them looking very ... filagree.

On Fri, 26 Jul 2013 19:47:17 +0100, Pam Moore wrote:

What edibles can I try in containers next year in my small garden, which
will not get eaten by slugs and snails?
Bean leaves mostly eaten,so no beans so far, lettuce have all gone, I
have some rocket and spinach coming on, but it's a bit disheartening.
Picked 6 pea pods today, put the peas on to cook and forgot them and let
the pan boil dry. I'd eaten all the previous ones raw but these were a
bit bigger.
Tomatoes at last setting fruit. Fingers crossed I don't get blight yet!


Are you planting the lettuce directly into the containers?

We have grown lettuce from reasonably well developed seedlings bought from
a nursery and they seem to be fine despite slug attacks around the base.

I suspect that if they had tried to grow from seed they might have been
munched before they got going.

Cheers

Dave R

On 29 Jul 2013 09:57:20 GMT, "David.WE.Roberts"
wrote:

On Fri, 26 Jul 2013 19:47:17 +0100, Pam Moore wrote:

What edibles can I try in containers next year in my small garden, which
will not get eaten by slugs and snails?
Bean leaves mostly eaten,so no beans so far, lettuce have all gone, I
have some rocket and spinach coming on, but it's a bit disheartening.
Picked 6 pea pods today, put the peas on to cook and forgot them and let
the pan boil dry. I'd eaten all the previous ones raw but these were a
bit bigger.
Tomatoes at last setting fruit. Fingers crossed I don't get blight yet!


Are you planting the lettuce directly into the containers?

We have grown lettuce from reasonably well developed seedlings bought from
a nursery and they seem to be fine despite slug attacks around the base.

I suspect that if they had tried to grow from seed they might have been
munched before they got going.

I planted in a tub "cut and come again" lettuce plants from Lidl. They
sarted growing well and then got "razed to the ground"! Last year I
planted the same type, also in a tub, and they lasted for many meals.

Pam in Bristol

"Pam Moore" wrote...

"Bob Hobden" wrote:

"Pam Moore" wrote ...

What edibles can I try in containers next year in my small garden,
which will not get eaten by slugs and snails?
Bean leaves mostly eaten,so no beans so far, lettuce have all gone, I
have some rocket and spinach coming on, but it's a bit disheartening.
Picked 6 pea pods today, put the peas on to cook and forgot them and
let the pan boil dry. I'd eaten all the previous ones raw but these
were a bit bigger.
Tomatoes at last setting fruit. Fingers crossed I don't get blight
yet!


Pam, I'm a great advocate of growing Carrots in containers for two
reasons,
firstly you can keep them up and away from the carrot root fly and
secondly
it allows you to give the carrots the sort of sandy open soil they like.
The
latter is especially good if, like us, you garden on heavy clay/silt (now
concrete due to the dry).

I sowed some carrot seed in a big pot. Germination: 1 carrot!


That is down to rubbish seed Pam. We have also suffered that too in the
past. I'm not sure if it's too old or they damage it too much rubbing off
all the sharp edges so they can handle it. If you grow carrots for seed
yourself you will see what I mean, they are rough and nothing like what you
buy.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Bob Hobden wrote:
I sowed some carrot seed in a big pot. Germination: 1 carrot!
That is down to rubbish seed Pam.

Not necessarily. (although probably)
Last year I thought I got zero germination, but on really close inspection you could
still see some tiny green stubs where the damned slugs had munched all the way down
to almost ground level.

Martin wrote:
In this part of the world we have bottom up munching mole crickets.
It's odd that mole crickets are extremely rare in UK, but common in
main land Europe and in the USA. They are supposed to have reached the
USA as passengers in a shipment of Dutch bulbs. It's odd that they
haven't reached UK the same way.

Probably don't like the weather. Or else the slugs ate them all

"Pam Moore" wrote in message

I sowed some carrot seed in a big pot. Germination: 1 carrot!

Pam in Bristol

My crate method seems promising - hundreds of germinations !!

It has the added advantage that I can transfer it in to the greenhouse
when the "summer" ends.

Just one snag, what to do with all those pesky carrots hopefully
forthcoming - lol

Pete