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The sight of tender shoots pushing through warming spring soil lifts the heart of every gardener. After weeks of anticipation the garden is finally moving. We rush to the greenhouse and start frantically sowing, gleefully admiring trays brimming with new seedlings. Hoes and rakes are joyfully unleashed from dark sheds, the soil is tilled, seeds are scattered. At the end of the day, as sunlight rakes across our tired but satisfied brows, visions of perfect lettuces, juicy peas and drifts of flowering annuals dance before our eyes. Spring – the season of optimism!
But behind that optimism is a hidden anxiety. There is something nasty lurking under the leaf litter at the back of your mind. And suddenly, in one damp night, swathes of innocent baby seedlings are ruthlessly massacred, eager buds nipped off in their prime, precious young shoots ripped to shreds. Yes! Those monstrous molluscs have returned: Slugs and snails.
Annelise Brilli is the Horticultural Copywriter for Thompson and Morgan. Annelise caught the gardening bug from her mother, whose tiny backyard was crammed with a huge collection of plants. As an adult, she had a career change into horticulture, gaining a training apprenticeship with the National Trust at Powis Castle Garden in Welshpool. She went on to work in a range of private and public gardens, later running a garden design and maintenance business. She is passionate about sustainable gardening and has developed her own wildlife-friendly garden which she has opened as part of Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail.
