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As June comes into full swing, gardeners are being urged to tackle several key jobs in the garden before the end of the month. One task, however, may come as a surprise – nighttime snail hunts. According to experts at BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, an unexpected but highly effective way to protect your garden this summer is to carry out regular evening snail hunts.
While it may sound unusual, this method can play a crucial role in preserving young plants during the growing season. Snails and slugs thrive in damp, shady environments and are most active during the cooler, damp hours of the evening.
Unfortunately for gardeners, these slimy creatures have a voracious appetite for young shoots, leaves, and tender plants, often causing serious damage overnight.
Manually removing these could therefore help reduce their numbers before snails and slugs multiply and become harder to control.
Head out into the garden during the evening, especially after rain or on humid days, and inspect common hiding places.
Look under plant pots, along the base of walls and fences, in mulch, and among dense foliage.
If you’d rather not kill them, you can relocate them far from your plants or leave them out for natural predators like birds, frogs, and hedgehogs.
Other tips include lifting and storing tulip bulbs after they’ve finished flowering and giving wisteria its summer prune to encourage better blooms next spring.
Gardeners are advised to support tall perennials like hollyhocks with sturdy canes and to cut back spring-flowering plants such as pulmonaria for a fresh flush of foliage.
Majke sure to also dig out perennial weeds such as bindweed or couch grass as soon as they appear, before they become established.
Taking softwood cuttings from herbs, feeding container displays, and tying in climbing roses have also been listed as some of the key jobs to do before the end of the month by BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine.
