Slug-proof plants for your garden

There is nothing worse than stepping outside and seeing your prized plants lacerated by the dinky teeth of some delinquent slug. Run rings around them with these range of plants with pretty damn good slug armour!

ONE. Physostegia virginiana (The Obedient Plant). Gosh, I have always adored this plant, ever since my Nana was growing it in her garden. Most people don’t realise you can actually move the small florets to exactly the angle you want them on the stem too, pretty good for super fussy gardeners! It’s a tough, hardy perennial, which has leaves which aren’t part of the normal slug diet!

TWO. Bergenia cordifolia (Elephant Ears). You could run a car over Bergenia and it would still survive, which is unlike the similarly-named ‘begonia’, so please don’t get the two plants muddled up! Bergenia, also known as Elephant Ears, makes a great weed prison, as the dense covering it gives stops any weeds in their tracks. Spring brings shocking pink flowers, and remember too it’s evergreen so those tough leaves are present all year round!

THREE. Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). Stalwarts of the border, but did you realise they are so resilient!? The humble Foxglove is now available in a jaw-dropping range of colours, and modern breeding has also given it a carousel of blooms, rather than the one-sided display one used to have to put up with!

FOUR. Polemonium foliosissimum (Jacob’s Ladder). I have been fascinated with this plant since my college days. The leaves are even better than those of a fern, and give it the common name of Jacob’s Ladder! It has grace and presence for the border, and is happy in sun or a little bit of shade! The sky blue flowers are handsome too!

FIVE. Thalictrum aquilegifolium (Meadow Rue). We all need plants that help to knit the border together. Frothy, informal gems. Thalictrum is one of them. Useful for awkward shady, slightly damp corners (outside, not cupboards!) Slugs simply cannot navigate the awkwardly shaped foliage!