The weather is getting warmer, the weeds are being pulled, the soil is being loosened, and the garden in general is being prepared for spring. I have been familiar with this scenario for two decades. Equally familiar to me is this situation: the seedlings that have been lovingly nurtured up are barely planted out when the slugs come and eat them up again.

We wanted to avoid using slug pellets in our garden, partly because it’s not very sustainable and partly because we’ve always had dogs and didn’t want them to consume some of this poison. At some point, though, we got a good tip that we still use today to deter slugs: Conifer branches.

There are many ways you can use them to get rid of the unloved pests. Some people make a decoction of the needles and pour it around the field, others just sprinkle the needles around the beds. We usually killed two birds with one stone: we simply collected the branches we had to cut back from our conifers and placed them around our plants like a border.

If you’re still going for a real Christmas tree in the winter, you can also save those branches and give them another purpose in your garden.

In our experience, this trick works with all needled branches, but fir is classically used for this purpose. However, conifers and other branches we have found have been just as effective. Good luck and happy harvest!