There’s this one part of the garden where nothing I plant seems to thrive. I tried hostas and day lilies – they were puny in size and gradually withered away, one after the other. I put down some daffodils to at least get some spring colour – they’ve never flowered. I tried a decorative yarrow – it didn’t even come back after the first winter. I tried Astilbe – they’re not dead but they’re also no bigger than they were five years ago. Now most recently I tried Astrantia – and within a week, slugs had eaten the majority of the leaves, to the point where the plants were barely identifiable. There’s just no winning here.