So, after getting the bad news about my neck, I spent a few days in bed, depression-playing Stardew Valley. Eventually I managed to get up and get to my real-life garden, which was sad-looking and neglected. I was very overdue for cleaning it up, weeding, clearing out the dead plants and covering it with mulch for the winter. I also went to plant some onions and garlic, I did plant a few broccoli earlier but it was immediately all eaten by slugs.
My highest priority was strawberries; they're the first thing I look forward to in the spring, and they've been overtaken by weeds and other big plants, overshadowed, and were generally looking very sad. I started clearing that stuff up, and immediately realized that I need a bucket to put slugs in, because they were so filled with slugs, and I mean, there were millions. Under every plant there was several families, they were hiding in the soil, laying eggs, hatching, it was a whole country in my strawberry bed.
It reminded me of the spring when I planted strawberries and beans together, and all of the beans ended up getting eaten by slugs. Also there were no slugs on other parts of the garden, where there were no strawberries. And now, clearing out the strawberry area, again, thousands of slugs.
This made me come to the conclusion that slugs,... love strawberries, and will multiply insanely on any area that I grow strawberries in. But, I love strawberries, and I allow them to grow on 70% of my garden, they're so small I can let them grow around everything else. Coincidentally, everything I planted in that garden for the last 5 months was immediately devoured by slugs. So this brings us... to a painful dilemma.
My garden used to not have a slug problem, in fact, last 3 years there were barely any slugs. And whenever there was a few, I could simply pick them out before they did any damage. The situation now is that slugs are here to stay, and they're staying in my strawberries, which I love. But, they are now going to eat the rest of my garden, repeatedly, before it even grows, unless... I take out strawberries.
I was trying to make this decision and I cannot do it, taking out strawberries is unmanageable, every spring I spend months just looking forward to strawberries and they're the center of my life. But.. I also need other food to grow at my garden. I can't just let slugs overtake everything forever, and having taken out 3 buckets, and my garden still getting eaten up, I know I can't keep fighting this.
So, what would you do?
What would you do if slugs were eating your garden, and the only way to control them was to not have any strawberries?
Take out strawberries
Leave the strawberries, the rest of the garden can die if strawberries live
Maybe have just a few strawberry plants in the corner
Secret fourth thing (it can't be killing slugs we don't do that)
