My first real attempt at gardening occurred when I moved into the bottom flat of a small two-story house with a weedy, patchy, postage-stamp-sized front lawn.

I started with planting annuals by the front door and near the sidewalk. The marigolds, impatiens, and petunias brightened up the otherwise plain house. Maybe I really could be a gardener.

One day I noticed that a slimy, snail-like creature eating my flowers. A neighbor told me they were slugs—an apt name—and that pouring salt on them would kill them. I followed this advice, and it worked.

A few days later, I opened the door from the kitchen to my enclosed back porch. To my horror, hundreds of slugs swarmed the porch floor. I couldn’t even step out.

Well, I knew how to kill them. I bought a super-sized canister of table salt and sprinkled it all over. Take that, you nasty slugs!

An hour later, I opened the door to the porch to check on the slugs.

They were all dead. And all stuck to my floor. ❖

What’s your worst gardening mistake? Email us your 200-300-word summary to submissions@greenprints.com with “Broken Trowel Entry” in the subject line—if we print your item, you win the Broken Trowel Award and get a free one-year subscription and our GreenPrints Companion CD!