Squirrel Flower // When A Plant Is Dying

Post by Misha //

There is something oddly meditative about picking slugs off the lawn in the dark. I know this because it’s what I’ve been doing at least twice a week for the last two months. I’ve read (and it seems, at least from my initial findings, to be true) that this is the only way to keep the slimy assholes from decimating a garden. Previously, I tried more hands-off approaches. I spread out an organic slug repellent. I crushed eggshells around the base of my brassicas. I stuck copper tape to the edges of my planters (allegedly the copper reacts with their goo in a way that gives them a mildly unpleasant shock when they crawl over it, akin to the feeling we get touching a metal door handle after shuffling along the carpet. How science has determined this analogy to be fitting, I do not know.)

Anyway, the hands-off approaches failed me. Maybe the slugs are simply too numerous. Maybe they are a particularly spiteful species. I don’t know. But now I am out there every couple of nights, hunched over with a headlamp and an old plastic takeout container, picking them up one by one. It’s a pain, but it’s also kind of nice to feel that I am doing something to protect my tender little seedlings. I listen to music as I do it. I enjoy the cool, damp air.

There is so much in life that can’t be controlled or even mitigated. To have something that is within my ability to care for, that is increasingly rare. This is the gift that the slugs have given me.

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