Count your slugs! 🐌

(Okay, that’s a snail. There isn’t a slug emoji, though…)

From 20 January until 2 March 2020, the Royal Horticultural Society and Newcastle University are on a recruitment drive for 60 volunteers to help out with a year-long study.

You must:

  • Be interested in learning more about slugs and how to identify them
  • Be able to survey a garden at night for 30 minutes once a month for a full year
  • Be willing to collect slugs and send them to our scientist

In return, you’ll receive:

  • An invitation to a free face to face training course on slug identification (travel costs not covered)
  • All the materials needed for the survey at no cost to you
  • A free FSC guide to identifying slugs
  • Personal correspondence and support from the RHS scientist leading this research

Starting the season 🌱

It’s that time again! The days are getting longer and, if you can dodge the rain for long enough, you can start getting a head-start on your plot.

On 9 January, the bi-monthly GAF meeting had the topic of ‘Starting the Season – Rearing Your Own Plants‘. Some of our most experienced members shared tips and answered questions from newer plotholders in a discussion that was so spirited it had to be forcibly cut off to make time for the business meeting that followed!

For those of you who couldn’t make it along, we’ve packaged up a summary of the key points. Skip on to page 2 below to read them online, or grab yourself a copy to download and keep (and print for the inside of your shed door, perhaps…)

> Don’t miss another discussion – put our bi-monthly meeting dates in your diary.