Bugs are seldom seen in my English garden but snails and slugs abound; I’ve never seen so many!  Their silvery trails crisscrossing the patio and garden walk, leaf edges systematically chewed in curves, and stripped stalks, all signs of the hidden army that attacks my hard to get plants.  It’s not like they have to go hungry—what about the wildflowers I allow to provide for the wildlife? What about the weeds? Ah but they are connoisseurs and prefer my tender petunias and delphiniums.

I run a “snail patrol”  as much as twice a day, running my gloved fingers under the rims of the pots (manufacturers should redesign to remove these rimmed hiding places). Then I look under the Creeping Jenny, then the dahlia leaves—even the herbs, which I thought they wouldn’t like, discovering a handful or two every time. Sometimes in every pot.

My husband began researching ways to get rid of snails in the garden and happened upon the story of the Hawaiian pineapple industry importing “giant” snail-eating snails to rescue their fields.  Unfortunately, as these things go, the predator snails were over efficient and decimated entire species of snails in the islands.  I don’t believe in using chemicals or going overboard with predator solutions—I try not to kill anything if I can help it (mosquitos and other things that attack me personally are another story) so I pull the snails away from their suction on the pot (some are bigger than I’d expect!) and relocate them to the wild part of the back garden where they can munch away on all sorts of tasty leaves and leave mine alone.

But most of my garden is in containers on gravel.  Where do they come from? I always thought that gravel would chafe the snails’ slimy underside but I guess the slime serves as a protective barrier.  Yesterday, I finally began pulling up the small bed of post-bloom wild buttercups to make way for something new.  Aha! I discovered a whole colony of yellow and black spiral-shelled snails and brown ones—fourteen in all!  Undoubtedly, more will fill the space when my new things grow but for now, maybe my plants can grow in peace.