Abstract: A slug barrier employs a salt or another non-toxic irritant to gastropods. An elongated flexible edge barrier extends along a margin of the garden, and has a lower edge protruding into the soil and an upper edge extending above the soil. A channel member formed at the upper edge holds a length of wicking material. The wicking material can be a compressed flat synthetic sponge. A paste of salt and other possible minor constituents is charged into the wicking material. The salt is an irritant to garden slugs and snails. Cayenne pepper and garlic juice can be added as know deterrents to a insects and animals such as rabbits. A liquid organic detergent in the paste prevents animals such as deer from licking or biting the sponge. The detergent deters other animals from crossing the barrier.

Abstract: A slug barrier employs a salt or another material that is an irritant to gastropods. An elongated flexible metal or plastic edge barrier is adapted to extend along a margin of the garden, and has a lower edge that is protrudes a few inches into the soil and an upper edge that extends above the soil. A channel member is formed at the upper edge and holds a length of the wicking material. A paste of salt and other possible minor constituents is charged into the wicking material. The salt is an irritant to garden slugs and snails. Cayenne pepper and garlic juice can be added which are know to be deterrents to a number of insects and animals such as rabbits. A liquid organic detergent in the paste prevents animals such as deer from coming to the salt and licking or biting the sponge. The detergent also deters other animals from crossing the barrier. The wicking material can be a compressed flat synthetic sponge.

Abstract: An image having more pixels than can be displayed on a video monitor (16) is stored in an image buffer (10) in packed raster format. During a vertical retrace period, the video monitor generates several horizontal synchronization signals which clock a video memory controller (20). Each time the video memory controller is clocked, it moves a portion of a next successive row of data from the image buffer to a video memory (12). In this manner, several rows of new data are loaded into the video memory before the video monitor starts withdrawing data from the video memory to display the first raster scan line. As the raster scan line is indexed to move down the video image by the horizontal synchronization pulses, the same horizontal synchronization pulses continue to index the row addresses of the video memory controller keeping the transfer of new data into the video memory several lines ahead of the current raster scan line.