Just to refresh your memory, when I talk about garden ninjas, I’m referring to snails. They are silent, stealthy and they kill plants efficiently…

Do you see a young sunflower plant? No? I’m not surprised. After the snail got through with it, it was unrecognizable…

Take a look at (what’s left of) my Tarahumara sunflower plant. Just yesterday it was a normal, juvenile sunflower plant that was about half a metre high and growing steadily. Today it’s a burst bubble of a dream for me.

Here’s the top of the stem…

And here’s the former crown of the plant at the base of the plant, with all the juicy leaves eaten up… The crown used to look like a green rose.

I had really been looking forward to seeing this sunflower bloom because it was the first time I had managed to grow its kind so well. It’s supposed to originate from Mexico, and have “distinctly green centres when in full bloom”.

And who would have thought that a plant of that size would be at such risk? I expected beetles to nibble at the leaves, not some monster come and demolish it completely! From my powers of deduction, it appears that the snail climbed up the support stake, where it chomped through the still tender upper stem, and either before or after this, it ate every single leaf on the plant.

This.

Means.

WAR!!! 

The snail bait is coming out in full force!!

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