My Blog List

Thursday, February 14, 2013

MAGNIFICENT MANGAVE, MACHO MOCHA MISCHIEF

I think I read somewhere that gardening is the most difficult of the arts. Maybe for some it comes easy but not for this gardener. It is a constant battle with the elements and bugs.


I have been admiring my beautiful Mangave, macho mocha, from a distance, for some time. Yesterday I decided to take a closer view to see if there were offsets waiting to be removed. This is when I spotted that all was not well.


The lower leaves had been stripped of their upper layers; one of those decollate snails was sitting right on top of the leaf. Now the hunt began.


I collected all these snails camping out underneath the plant. All the lower leaves were shredded. I'm now realizing that I have a snail problem in my gravel/rock front garden. Who would have thought.

4 comments:

  1. Oh no, Jenny. A shame about your beautiful Mangave, and I'm glad you got to it in time. I am really bummed over your news of these snails. I first learned of these from you ... So far, I have that optimum balance between the round snails (escargot?) and I am leaving the decollate snails alone, but I fear my snail population may head down the same path. How to help nature maintain the balance? I guess I'll have to resort to overturned fruit rinds and hand picking again ...
    Speaking of the battle of the bugs, I won't have any spring blooms on my Mt. Laurel due to those ugly web-making caterpillars. Hand picking didn't work last fall; there were too many. I don't understand why the birds don't eat these ...

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  2. Ewww, just when the plant looks so good something comes along and attacks it. Snails in the gravel garden does seem a surprise. I haven't seen too many here but will keep an eye out as I have several of the macho mocha plants.

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  3. Oh, no. These guys can really make a mess. I'm seeing more of them here, this year.

    It does seem to always be something, that we have to battle in the garden.

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  4. So sorry jenny about that beautiful agave. Hope it recovers soon.

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