High  61    Low 49   Grey and overcast with showers on and off all day

I’m assuming you all have heard of rain gardens, cutting gardens, forest gardens, bog gardens and plenty of other types of gardens that follow a central theme or purpose.

Well, after all of the questions I have been getting form folks this year, I am proclaiming this the year of the slug garden.

Due to massive rains, the not so charming descendants from snails are abundant in the Pacific Northwest this year. To qualify my above statement, slugs can be charming and even downright pretty except when they are uninvited guests to my garden. By the way, some slugs aren’t bad but instead provide a much needed service. North Coast banana slugs, Ariolimax species, are a vital part of forest ecology, cleaning up debris and dispersing mushroom spores and native plant seeds. They are a valuable food source for the Pacific giant salamander.

But what about common garden slugs?

They wait in formation every night as we turn our backs and walk away to clean ourselves up after a hard days work planting and preening the rows. They chant songs of conquering the peas and lettuce and laugh in the face of our astonishment when we return in the morning to lacey leaved vegetables looking helpless and perhaps a little embarrassed.

Like it or not, this is the year of the slug. Consider it an opportunity to hone your skills at keeping these little creatures in check. After all, they are only trying to make a living.

If you want more information on slugs, check out this link http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/fs/fs277.pdf