5 Perspectives on Snails

One man’s pest is in another man’s pesto…

I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that gardeners of the UK are obsessed with slug and snails. It must be the second hottest topic after the weather, despite the fact that rain and slugs are pretty ubiquitous and often go hand in hand. As a gardener, I myself regularly and willingly get involved in these discussions and I find it fascinating to hear the many and creative methods people employ for ridding their gardens of gastropods and saving their plants from facing a slimy destruction. I tend to go with the classic chuck them over the garden fence (but never into a neighbours garden). However, despite their sketchy rep, I love snails - so much so that they’re the logo for my business - and am interested in how they are perceived so differently in different arenas, from their most common identity as a garden snail to much more luxe associations in fine dining, skincare and art.

(All research sources are linked at the bottom of this post, including a link for a snail and pesto risotto, should you be interested…)

1. Garden Pest 🌱
   As I’ve mentioned, there is a lot of anti-slug and snail feeling in the UK, and understandably so, I have lost more plants to slugs and snails than I can count. It’s heartbreaking to see your seedling begin to grow and flourish only to be felled overnight by a hungry slug/snail. However, it’s #notallsnails. There are around 100 different terrestrial snails in the UK and of those very few are considered to be pests, in fact the majority play a beneficial role by eating decaying plant and leaf litter and turning it into compost, and being eaten by insects and mammals we want to attract, like song thrushes and hedgehogs. It’s simply a case of the common garden snail (Cornu asperum) giving the whole bunch a bad name.
   

2. Permaculture Principle #9: ‘Use small and slow solutions’ 🐌
   The snail is aptly the icon for the ninth permaculture principle, a set of ideas aimed at designing our landscapes in a way that mimics the natural environment and builds resilience and efficiency within our landscapes. While I am not strictly a permaculture gardener, I do regularly dwell on these principles as valuable guidelines for being more creative and utilising existing resources. The idea what we should use small and slow solutions reminds me that good design rarely means starting from scratch, but rather using what already exists in a space and building from there.
   

3. K-beauty & Skincare ✨
   Snail mucin is becoming an increasingly popular skincare ingredient and comes with an impressive list of potential benefits, including hydration, healing and reducing signs of pigmentation and aging - ironically, ideal if you’re a gardener and spend your days out in the elements. Although predominantly water, mucin excreted by snails also naturally includes hyaluronic acid, collagen, and antimicrobial peptides, amongst other things. It’s definitely trendy, but interestingly snails have been used medicinally for hundreds of years, particularly for use in treating cuts and wounds.
   

4. Fancy French Food 🥖
   ‘Snail’ sounds very down-to-earth, but escargot feels far more glamorous. They are such a delicacy in fact that, like wine, they are judged by the land from which they are harvested, their ‘terroir’, with the best originating from the vineyards of Burgundy. These are the snails we most commonly associate with classic French dining, soaked in garlic and butter, however, as with their medicinal uses, snails have a long culinary history as well as a broad geographical scope and are also eaten in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Med.
   

5. Art & Matisse 🎨
   Many artists have taken inspiration from snails, they are an odd and amusing feature of medieval art, they feature as motifs in Gaudi’s famous Sagrada Familia, and are spotted amongst the floral still lifes of the Dutch Masters. However, ‘L’escargot’ or ‘The Snail’ by Matisse is one of the biggest, boldest, and most famous examples we have and one that has inspired me personally. It is one of Matisse’s most iconic artworks and yet was one he composed when he was afflicted with poor health and unable to paint. He cut out shapes and instructed his assistants on where to pin them to the walls of his studio, the pin marks are even visible on the paper. It is a real testimony to creativity in spite of and as a result of challenging circumstances. Matisse himself saw this change in technique as something new and exciting.
   Matisse’s snail hangs in the Tate Modern, accompanied by a quote from the artist that I found particularly pertinent as a planting designer, “It is not enough to place colours, however beautiful, one beside the other; colours must also react on one another. Otherwise, you have cacophony."

Photo of ‘The Snail’ by Henri Matisse taken by me on 31 May 2023, shortly after my first exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show

Although I hope it has been interesting to consider, this is by no means a comprehensive guide to snails and their many associations. Their influence spans history, geography and culture in so many interesting and unusual ways and understanding this variety can help us to question our own perspectives and preconceptions. Other topics I considered mentioning are snail mail and the slow food movement, both of which are increasingly relevant in a world that looks to more traditional, sustainable, and localised solutions to global problems. Far from being a problematic pest in fact, snails repeatedly appear to be part of solutions, whether it be to physical issues, ideological ones, or the way we think about and approach design.

Sources:

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/snails-and-slugs.html

https://www.webmd.com/beauty/what-is-snail-mucin

https://recipes.hypotheses.org/17507

https://www.britannica.com/topic/French-cuisine

https://lindysez.com/basil-risotto-with-escargot/

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/matisse-the-snail-t00540