Categories: uncategorized
Date: 31 July 2008 21:31:04
Earlier this week Marmite-on-Toast Lemly was reflecting on a little slug problem she had. I empathize with her.
Toddler and I have been gardening. He likes pretty flowers. Although his enthusiasm usually is displayed by pulling the heads off of them and scattering the petals through the hall. And he likes watering. Although approximately half of the water from his watering can tends to end up on himself rather than the plants.
One day in spring, Toddler came home from nursery having planted sunflower seeds in a small pot. We watered them and three sprouted. So we planted them out in the garden. And then I figured I'd encourage this productive activity. So we planted strawberries. In hanging baskets to try and keep the slugs away. And sugar snap peas. Instead of the flowering sweet peas I've planted in past years. Since any flowers would only be destined to loose their heads and be scattered throughout the hall anyway.
We've watered and watched. The slugs have mostly kept away. There was a minor problem with caterpillars on the strawberries. But we moved the mini-beasts. And last week Toddler picked and ate home-grown strawberries. It's likely that the first pea harvest will occur this weekend. However, it would be fair to say that the sunflowers aren't doing so well.
One plant died due to gale-force winds and my failure to stake it properly. Another was lost in heavy rains. All hopes were pinned on the one surviving plant. About three foot high it held up its head and started to flower. And then lost all its leaves. I blamed the slugs. Although I was a little confused why they'd stripped the leaves but left the stem untouched. The next day I examined the struggling flower. A lone snail sat in its centre. So I blamed him for the damage and less-than-gently removed him from Toddler's precious flower.
And then yesterday I saw Eric.
Eric has been hanging around our garden for about a fortnight. He's watched me hang out washing. Basked in sunny patches of our patio where Toddler has thoughtfully emptied buckets of sand from his sandpit. And he's been chased round the garden by Toddler shouting. Until I suggested that that was perhaps unwise given the fact that Eric is about a foot tall, with mottled brown feathers, webbed feet and a seriously dangerous looking beak.
Not keen for the baby gull to stay, we haven't fed him. This, I now fear, was our mistake. Sitting in the lounge looking out of the window at the struggling sunflower I watched in horror as Eric peaked at the flower. Petals and seeds were destroyed.
Toddler walked to nursery today repeatedly telling me "I sad 'cos Eric eat my sunflower" and asking "Which flowers yours, mummy? Can I share your pretty pink flowers?". Almost heartbreaking. Until he found a slug to jump on. And Eric was forgotten about.