Can you do anything to ‘protect’ plants from slugs/snails?

[Appuskidu]

I have the most lovely luscious and beautiful Senecio Angel Wings which I planted in the ground yesterday, but two of the (huge!) leaves were utterly destroyed overnight, so I have dug it up and put it in a pot on the garden table to recuperate!

Is there anything I can do? I’m guessing that even if I put the pot on the ground with my other pots, it will end up decimated like all my hostas. Do I have to have it on the picnic table forever? Or can I bring it in the house??

I planted a cabbage to distract them from everything else

I’m going to try the garlic rinse

I also use salt. I keep a few old bricks at the back (my garden is quite shady and dank) and when I turn them I sprinkle salt on all the slugs.

There are absolutely millions of baby snails this year

I do the garlic water (I don't heat the water, just crush slightly rotten garlic cloves & add to a bottle of water & leave it for a couple of days), I put grit, egg shells and coffee grounds down. And I go out every night after dark - twice usually -- and transfer every slug and snail I can see to the front garden by pot. The way they crawl up the pot and ride on the top looking round to see where they're going has really warmed me towards them. I lost a lot of plants earlier this summer but doing all of this without fail has definitely helped.

@ScribblingPixie haha love that. What do they eat in the front garden though? Also, do you think it may be the same ones you are bringing round each day?

Slug pubs, yogurt pots sunk into the ground and filled with beer. You need to start early in the year though- Valentines Day apparently! You will catch hundreds of tiny ones 🤢

It seems to have been a particularly bad year for slugs and snails and OMG they do like dahlias.

I’m afraid the only thing that semi works for us is keeping a close eye on affected plants and picking them off and disposing.

[quote Leah2005]@ScribblingPixie haha love that. What do they eat in the front garden though? Also, do you think it may be the same ones you are bringing round each day? [/quote]
We've got a neglected area under the hedge with quite a lot of -weeds- wildflowers. It's a terraced London street where the fronts are fairly green & unkempt so not a bad life for them - and no way back!

How thick is the copper tape on your pots? Do you double the thickness? I have also seen a copper mesh sold that you can lay on the soil around plants in the ground - has anyone used that?

I too am waging a war and losing.

Copper tape on my pots is 1 inch wide and very thin in thickness if you see what I mean, you can buy it online, it's like sellotape but made of copper.