The lettuce is leggy and the bokchoi has bolted. While I’m scrambling after runaway cabbages, the slugs launch their offensive. Calling them swift may be overstatement, yet under the cover of a single night, they behead the French marigolds and disembowel the strawberries, leaving a trail of slime and destruction.

Melissa Fu grew up in Northern New Mexico and lives in Cambridge, UK. She finds the difference in the climates very confusing for gardening. Learn more about these and other messes at SpillingtheInk.com.