Rain Over Austin

It’s been wet and muggy throughout the day. The only time it looked promising, dry that is, was when I left the house this morning for work. Once I got there, I didn’t give the weather a second thought. Instead, my mind was a mash up of papers and files and the grudge I carry against office machinery. 

I wouldn’t have even looked out my office window had a friend not texted me, amused at how happy my snails must be today. I appreciate a friend who can so easily steer my otherwise task focused mind around to thoughts of my garden.  

The snails have been a frequent topic of conversation for several weeks now to anyone who will listen which is approximately two people. I have friends who will humor me but two dear friends will commiserate at length on the subject. 

We’ve discussed decollate snails vs. the common garden snail, a snail’s insatiable appetite, a snail’s ability to make their way up a tree and how easy it is to put an ecosystem out of whack which I likely did when I hunted the larger garden snails at midnight with my flashlight.

I suspect my predatory decollates now have to settle for greens since I eliminated their preferred meal of common garden snails. They have no choice. We’ve all got to eat and we want to eat beautifully hence the labor of a garden. 

The big snails, they’re so obvious it’s pitiful. Hungry opportunists is what they are. 

The decollates, on the other hand, are much more stealth; they keep a low profile, gather en masse and blend in with the soil. It’s been mano a mano for weeks now and I’d like to think I’m winning the battle but the fact that I had to replace two zucchini cotyledons with 4 seeds this evening makes me doubt it. I have to keep on top of things out there for fear they will decimate every rooted thing. 

Killing them seems so savage. There’s no kind way to do it. I toss them aside, as if they were stones, away from my garden. I cringe when I inadvertently step on one and I refuse to put salt or diatomaceous earth around my plants. Even the beer method which, if you knew me, you might think I’d like seems unfair and cruel. 

If I’ve learned anything from the ever present population of snails in my garden it would be acceptance. We are both committed to the garden and that will not change. We gravitate in equal measure to new growth, and we both take pleasure, immense pleasure, in a seed sprout.