Update: Just got back from San Diego again. DD has removed the largest bed to the left of her garden. Seems the snails attacked all the flowers there. She found they were coming through a sewer drain in their yard but the damage had been done. She also found out that her lease says she isn't allowed to put in flower beds on the Navy base housing. hrrrmph! She did leave the bed up against the fence. All that is left are the Rock Purslane and the Salvia. The Salvia is barely hanging on but is coming back after the snail attack. The sedum was under attack, too. She removed them and potted them up in the hanging gutter pots. They are doing well again. Her potted plants, have survived. in fact, her plumeria is blooming profusely and her lime tree has many, many limes on it.
While I was there, I pulled up the weeds and cleaned up the remaining bed. She didn't want me to top it off with mulch in case it has to be removed when they go to another base. I can't imagine anyone wanting to have it removed especially since all, and I mean ALL the grass is now dead from the drought? Her plants are the only green left in her yard! I put down quadruple layer of hardware cloth over the drain to keep the snails from coming out. I bordered it with rocks and poured rock salt around the rocks to keep the slugs from coming up, too.
There was not much to do where the lawn was but I hacked down the weeds, mowed it and blew the leaves off. It looked cleaner but pretty darn barren! In fact, the whole City looks pretty brown due to the drought. It used to have so many flowers and greenery to look at! Sad all the way around. Some of the homes have resorted to Astro Turf! But even that bright green looks odd among the dead stuff. I hope they recover from this!
