The Garlic recipe
Joan Cooper

I wonder how many members have tried the Garlic Recipe to deter slugs? I have been using it for the past few months and trying very hard to beat the slugs and snails. Here on my heavy clay soil it has been a battle, but I can report some success. Hostas, in pots, have still been attacked and the echinaceas have still been targeted even with heavy doses of garlic, but Viola soraria ‘Freckles’ managed a few flowers this year and the leaves are reasonably holeless. Very successful has been the Beesia calthifolia, (don’t speak too soon!) no holes there, and Acanthus mollis, also not a hole in sight and it is a very large plant. Largest of leaves, the rheum, has been more or less left alone and the bergenias are fine so far.

Of course every time it rains I have to spray and if we have had intermittent showers with some forecast for later then I am not certain whether to spray between the rain or wait until afterwards. The winds have been particularly fierce recently so that hasn’t helped.

The great thing about the garlic mixture is not having to wear a mask and rinse out the sprayer! I leave the residue in the sprayer and just add to it but if I spray all the plants that get attacked I need more than five litres. I suppose the war will never be won, but I am defending my patch as best I can. The garlic mixture is a help, as is a husband willing to crush the garlic; but remember to do the preparation and cooking outside!

[The recipe, attributed to Una Dunnett is as follows: Crush two bulbs of garlic, then steam or boil them in two pints of water for three to four minutes until they’re blanched. Strain mixture and make back up to two pints. Leave it to cool, then mix one tablespoon into a gallon of water, and sprinkle on to leaves in dry weather. Re-apply after it has rained. -Ed.]

First published in the Hampshire Group Newsletter, Summer 2009
and subsequently in Cornucopia Issue 27.
© Copyright for this article: Joan Cooper

This article was taken from a copy of Cornucopia that was published in 2011. You could be reading these articles as they are published to a national audience, by subscribing to Cornucopia.