Love/Hate?

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Inspired by Helen Battersby's recent post in Toronto Gardens I thought I would answer her question "Are their any things you love and hate in your garden".
In my case it's snails, I've always loved them, in particular the lovely ones with striped shells; they used to be quite rare in my garden so I always turned a blind eye to them when I came across them. More recently the population has exploded and has taken a toll on many plants turning them into delicate lace. 
Now I won't hesitate crush them under foot.
A cast metal snail found in Bankok slides across one of my alpine troughs.

I have a number of chinese copies of japanese Netsuke...

quite a few of these are in the shape of snails.

The real thing seen here sliding across the glass in my front door.

Comments

LauraH said…
The snail population explosion has been pretty amazing over the past couple of years, can't help wondering if it's connected to climate change. I found lots in my witch hazel last spring, not sure what they thought they were doing up there.
November 19, 2013 at 2:29 PM
Barry Parker said…
Yeah, where did those little striped ones come from anyway??
November 19, 2013 at 3:39 PM
James David said…
I hate snails no matter how rare they may appear to be in my garden.
Somehow the damage is not so visible as I constantly squash them when I see them.
November 19, 2013 at 8:31 PM
Helen said…
Oh, Barry, how did I miss this conversation?! And how reassuring to know I'm not alone. I have a snail made from iron salvage. Yours are great.
December 2, 2013 at 6:15 AM
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