In recent days, almost the entire country has been drenched in storms. Don’t get me wrong, our plants love this abundance of water. However, there is a small catch: as soon as the storm passes and the sun shines, the garden is suddenly filled with the most annoying of guests: slugs.
If you have a kitchen garden or a carefully tended flower bed, you know exactly how much destruction they can cause in just one night. They don’t discriminate: they can chew through everything from tender lettuce leaves to the most beautiful ornamental plants. When you see that your seedlings that you have been nurturing for weeks are going to waste, you immediately want to reach for some harsh chemical. However, there is a much gentler, and completely free, solution that is probably already lurking in your kitchen.
Your breakfast is worth its weight in gold in the garden
Instead of simply dumping the coffee grounds into the bin after your morning coffee, start collecting them in a small bowl. Coffee grounds are a real miracle cure for the garden. On the one hand, they are great for nourishing the soil, and on the other hand, snails can’t stand them.
Not only do they avoid the intense smell of coffee from afar (which also keeps the neighbor’s cats away from the beds), but they also hate the caffeine itself and the grainy texture of the grounds. Imagine: they would have to slide across this rough, dry surface, which is extremely irritating to their bodies. They’d rather not even try.
How do you use it to make it really work?
The trick is simple. Wait for the coffee grounds to dry out a bit, then mix them with a little plain garden soil. Spread this mixture around the base of your most vulnerable plants as a protective ring.
However, you should pay attention to one important thing: coffee grounds are not a panacea if your garden is a paradise for snails. You can’t skip cleaning. Make sure you don’t leave cut weeds or wet clumps of grass lying around on the ground, because snails love to hide under them from the sun. The same goes for stagnant water and buckets left outside. If you keep your garden tidy and sprinkle coffee grounds around the beds, they won’t stand a chance.
Have snails appeared in your area after the rains? How do you protect yourself from them?
