One of the low-growing Sedums/stonecrops might be good for this purpose. It is fairly slug-resistant. Many types will be fine in your clay soil fill, and many will do well in afternoon sun. Gold Moss sedum (Sedum acre "Aureum") might work well for you as it is very low-growing and will tolerate moderate foot traffic and full sun. Likes a dry soil, and likely will be evergreen for you in Zone 7. We have Wild stonecrop (Sedum ternatum), which is a U.S. native in our rocky areas, but this stonecrop does better with some shade. Some sedums can get slippery if stepped on directly if they are tall/long, so if you go with a sedum, be sure that it's a very compact, low-growing one that will not send out long shoots over the pavers. See the link below for a fabulous sedum/stonecrop general website that has photos of many, many varieties of sedum. It's the one plant I can think of right now that is slug-resistant, tolerates afternoon sun and clay soil, is low-growing, foot-traffic tolerant, and disease and pest resistant. You wouldn't have to water it excessively so that's always a plus too. Here is a link that might be useful: Sedum Photo gallery

Hello Hellena, Your English is just fine! And welcome to the GardenWeb, we are glad to hear from you. If you go to the bottom of the forum page, you'll find a box marked 'search' and you can write in "slugs". There have been a great many postings on the subject -- there are more than a couple gardeners who despise the critters. What kills slugs also deters and usually kills snails. Meanwhile, there are a couple things you can do. Right now, go through the garden and check *under* every possible hiding place, including under stepping stones, boards, pots, benches, etc. You will likely find more than a few slugs that think they are hidden. Slugs will hide under loose leaves, so pick up and compost dead leaves as soon as possible. Once, I found dozens of slugs that had slithered inside a hollow plastic edging -yuk! Drop the slugs into a container that has ammonia mixed into water (about a cup [1/4 liter] of ammonia into 1 quart [1 liter] of water). The ammonia kills the slugs quickly. You can pour the slug-filled ammonia-water onto your compost pile or - in the spring and summer- dilute with another liter of water and pour around a perennial; the slug-bodies will decompose quickly. Plants like ammonia and think they are getting a treat, but it does encourage growth so don't give plants ammonia-water in the fall or winter. Every slug you find now will be one less slsug eating in your garden next spring. In the spring and during the growing season, you can drench the plants slugs like best with very strong coffee. Make the coffee about 3 times stronger than you would want to drink, let it cool and then put it into a sprayer. I use the bottle sprayer that originally held window cleaner. Spray the plant both on top and beneath each leaf until the coffee runs in dribbles. The coffee grounds should be mixed with a bit of soil and then put around the base of any plant that prefers slightly acidic soil. The problem with coffee -besides the expense- is that it has to be re-applied after every rain. You should also get into the habit of carrying a spray bottle every time you go into the garden. Fill it with equal parts ammonia and water -or even only ammonia, and spray any slug you see, including the ones on the plants. You may never completely get rid of ALL the slugs, but you can certainly get rid of most of them! BTW, I don't think stepping on slugs is cruel. But I do think the damage slugs cause by eating my plants is just plain mean, so I don't mind killing slugs. I hate to touch them, so I wear disposible gloves. If you have the space, and like to experiment, try edging the garden with a border of heliotrope. I've found that while heliotrope plants never seem to be bothered by slugs, the new leaves can be cut into tiny pieces; steeped overnight in water; and then poured onto plants that slugs normally eat. It doesn't seem to kill the slugs, be apparently slugs don't like the smell and stay away. If you are desperate, a 3" to 4" [75-100mm]-wide edging of thin copper flashing, laid flat around the bed, will deter snails. Copper flashing is used by folks building or repairing roofs; it's very expensive (but much cheaper than the copper edging sold by garden stores), but you might be able to find a craftsman who will sell you the scraps at a low cost.

I live in the Cascade foothills in the Columbia River Gorge, and have killed upwards of 500 large slugs in the yard portion of the property this year, and have not had anywhere near that number for several years previous. And that's just the "morning murders" as my husband calls them. I haven't ventured out at night yet, but I'm seeing a lot more slugs out and about this year. Have you brought in topsoil, mulch, plants, anything like that? Also, you might want to check out the life cycle of a slug - they have lots of babies! I had to pick off many dozens of bitty slugs from my echinacea a few weeks back. (I didn't count those in my death toll!) Best of luck. The most effective way to really make a dent is to go out at night with a bucket of soapy water and a pair of nitrile gloves. Pick and drop, pick and drop. YOu'll be amazed. The slug baits are for the most part very eco-unfriendly, so beware. Many kill pets. I have one bait that I resort to in some areas, it's pet-safe and only gets eaten by slugs and snails, but it's not a cure-all.

I'm lucky to say I don't have a slug or snail problem in my yard. Earwigs and cutworms on the other hand... We used to have tons of the Leopard slugs around here and some of the garden slugs, but this year, even after all of the rain we had, I haven't seen hardly any in the spring and none so far this summer. I think when we had our old garage torn down and built a new one, and put in a patio, that we took away their main hiding place. Even in the previous years when we had an abundance of slugs, they didn't seem to do that much damage. The Leopards are not plant eaters, they are scavengers (thank goodness, some got to be six inches long), but those little brown garden slugs liked to chew on some of my hostas. We also have quite a few toads in our yard and this spring had a bumper crop of babies. They probably have helped in the slug control for this year too. Now if they'd work on the mosquitoes. Karen