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Ask a Gardening QuestionGardening Questions & Answers: Plant ProblemsSlugs, snails and my erigeron

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Slugs, snails and my erigeron

#1 · 12th July 2023, 1:55 pm

I am not a brilliant gardener, but do my best to make my garden a nice place to be. I have a 4ft high drystone wall at the end of my garden with a planting area on top. I really wanted to grow some erigeron on the wall and let it trail down over the stones. I bought a nice plant and put it in. The next day it looked a bit bedraggled and so last night I went to check to see if it was being eaten and found about 8 fat slugs all over it. I dug it up straight away - 11pm! - and brought it to safety in my kitchen. I think I will keep it in a pot now but where to put it? Any advice would be welcome. Thanks

#2 · 12th July 2023, 5:41 pm

Hi @theresa23

Gosh it sounds as if you’ve had really bad luck.

Erigeron is the best plant for those conditions and will happily colonise a wall when it self seeds. However if you’ve got slugs then pick a more slug resistant plant. My article here on slugs and the video below will help.

https://youtu.be/9pLKXgDsQuU

One recommendation is to use Alchemilla mollis. It will love the dry stone wall and slugs avoid it.

Then place the Erigeron somewhere else away from slugs for the time being.

Hope that helps!

Lee