My poor lupins

Yesterday I had two strong sets of shoots coming from my overwintered lupins. Today? The picture says it all.

There will be a slug or two at work here and my recent experience of emptying pots suggests these will probably be half-way to the bottom, snuggled between plastic and compost well out of harm's way.

So, short of sitting up next to the pot all night armed with something sharp, what can I do? We don't like using chemicals if we can avoid it, and although I know you can get ecofriendly slug pellets, we have so much wildlife in the garden, I don't want to risk it.

What I'm going to try is wool pellets. I read about these a few years ago. The reviews were all very positive, except from the man whose plants were still lost because his dog loved the smell of the pellets and took every opportunity to roll in them. They do undoubtedly smell - of sheep. The idea behind them is they are scratchy, irritate the slug's foot and draw out moisture so they stay away. They certainly look spikey up close.

I've got high hopes for these. I only got a small bag, though, enough to go round my two Dahlias when the time comes. I suspect I'm going to need a lot more. And hopefully this will help support sheep farmers who have been having a rough time. Not so long ago they were selling fleeces at a loss. Or worse.