Visitors

My friend Liz is bringing her mom out to see the garden tomorrow. Am I nervous? Well. Yeah.

Today as I was weeding, my dog was acting cute and one of the hummingbirds buzzed my ear. Tomorrow, the dog will bark incessantly, and the birds will make themselves scarce.

I wish I could say I trained my dog to point:

That is a japanese beetle he is nosing. It's odd, and I probably shouldn't say it, but this year I have had very few of the dreaded beetles. I've seen them, singly, on and around the plants. But not in numbers. And many of the ones I have seen were already dead. Of course, I have not seen many insects this summer, despite our plentiful rainfall, which makes me wonder if they haven't been spraying our area to keep down the mosquitoes, and just 'forgot' to inform us of that small matter. I then I wonder about this persistant headache I am currently cursed with...

At least there will be a few things for them to see. My favorite daylily is in full form. This plant came with this house, planted in one of the low areas, and struggling to keep it's head above the wet. I potted it up in a whiskey keg and it has been lovely. It's time to give it a repot for next season, as the texture of the petals has changed. I think it needs a good dose of compost.

Comments

[Bogie]

I just found your blog and it is facinating!

I wanted to comment on Japenese Beatles. I live in the boonies in southern New Hampshire (zone 4 officially, but more like zone 3). We don't get sprayed for mosquitos and I garden organically, but I have noticed that the Japanese beetles are almost absent here this year too (usually my rosa rugosas are almost completely covered by them).

Maybe there is some sort of natural predator (disease or insect) that has found it's way into the population. I can only hope!

[jenn]

Hey! Glad you found the place!

I did notice the beetles, sometime later in the season... they seemed to stay away from the ferns and shastas that they had munched last year, and favored instead the weedy wild grape that had taken over a gall-poxed pussy willow (which I just removed a few weeks ago.)

So they were around, they just weren't 'pests' this year. I suspect next year the trend will change again.