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English/Californian Summer

	Dear Tim and Listers,			24 June 1998

	Thugs, schmugs--I love invasive plants and have never met
	one I couldn't control.  Now moluscs are another problem.

	In Kensington, fifteen miles from the Golden Gate and 3 miles
	from SF Bay we had and enlessly wet winter, cold but never
	freezing, no spring, a five day summer of 80's & 90's and have
	lapsed back into eternal gloom.  The days are cold, windy, foggy
	and perfect for snails and slugs--great for deer too!

	I've excluded the latter but am losing to them moluscs.  Day and
	frigid night hunts have yielded 100s of the bastards and I've
	crushed each with joy and revenge but my young palms, my phormiums,
	my clematis and don't mention the hollyhocks are shocking.
	The hostas are gone completely.

	What are some of your solutions that really work-I've tried
	green sand, beer, poisoned bait, sharp chippings and copper snail/slug
	guard.  We can't stop irrigating for though the summer seems like
winter
 	the plants go dry, especially those in containers.  I have a terribly
	crowded garden so dead-line is useless.  It's making me feel I want
	to give up.

	So pet your invasive giant Geraniums-they're easy to move.  What do
	you do to save a massive collection of brooms covered with
	French brown snails every morning?  Will my hostas return?
	Will my sanity survive?  Will the sun ever shine again without
	burning everything to charcoal?  Help!

	Michael D. Barclay
	Really Special Plants & Gardens
	opga@wenet.net


Michael Barclay, D.Lett.   opga@wenet.net
Opera Education International/OEI, Berkeley, CA  www.operalover.net
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