Top tips for slug control
When it comes to what insects you can find in your garden there are bugs and beasts.
All insects exist to balance the eco system, but if you’re having a hard time with hungry slugs, tv gardener Danny Clarke and Fran Lawton have some top tips for keeping them at bay.
Prize draw time!
Our friends at Field Studies Council, the organisation dedicated to getting everyone passionate about the environment, have donated six packs of their amazing insect and wildlife spotting guides to giveaway for FREE.
To be in with the chance of winning one, all you have to do is guess the right answer below.
Which is NOT a method Danny Clarke and Fran suggest to deter slugs in the video?
Terms and conditions apply.
Friendly visitors
As well as slugs, your sunflower will attract various types of friendly beasts including bees, butterflies and beetles. Ray Mears discovers a rare beetle and other insects in Wilderness Walks with Ray Mears available to watch online via Together TV.
Your sunflower will attract many different types of bees, but do you know the difference between a honey bee and a buff tail bee? Identifying what is in your garden is a great way to learn together, especially if you are growing with little gardeners.
When identifying bees, it's good to use their antennas, thorax (upper body) and abdomen (lower body.) There are many different types of bees so it can be fun to know which ones are coming to your garden.
The honey bees have a slim, sandy thorax and a mostly black abdomen, sometimes with golden-amber bands.
The white-tailed bumblebee is mostly black with two yellow bands on its body (thorax) and a white 'tail'. There are several very similar species to the white-tailed bumblebee like the buff-tailed bumblebee and the garden bumblebee, which can make telling them apart difficult.
The common carder bee is a fluffy, brown-and-orange bumblebee, sometimes displaying darker bands on the abdomen.
Field Studies Council is dedicated to teaching everyone about the environment, so they become passionate and interested in the world around them. It has loads of additional resources to help you identify the bees in your garden as well as other wildlife. You can download their free spotters guide to get started on what's in your garden. They have centres across the UK too so you can always pop by for a day of fun.
Good luck in the prize draw and tick off this week on your sunflower calendar.
Next week we’ll be sharing in advance what to do when it’s time to harvest your sunflowers.
Sunflower Challenge Main Resource Page | Watch Gardening Shows on Together TV
