Well, my garden went from over the top, blooming wonder to ridiculously dead. That is a garden for you. All the wildflowers died, and I had them pulled out right away because my brother was coming and I wanted it to look neat. Then I was a little overzealous watering over Memorial Day weekend and tested all my drip systems (maybe for too long) and pruned all the roses.

This week was cool with thick fog, and without even noticing the rust moved in and wrecked all my roses–maybe I transferred it when I pruned them too. On top of that, little miniature green caterpillars ate holes in every single rose leaf. My favorite rose “Mary Rose” is completely barren of leaves and only has a few flowers left. The only ones that haven’t caught the rust are the climbers, but they still have caterpillars. I went through the shed  looking for all my organic sprays and soaps. I plucked off all the yellow leaves and cleaned and put worm castings all around them. Someone told me that would be absorbed by the roses and make them taste bad. Then the guy at Walter Anderson told me that wasn’t true. He told me my pumpkins didn’t make fruit last year because it never reached 90 degrees and all that made me mad. I went crazy trying to remove every rust leaf in my yard and had giant thorns stab me. My arms are all scratched to pieces, bruised too from one very bad rose cane that snapped back at me as if trying to get revenge.

So anyway, I am very sad about the end of spring. I’m trying to grow some Black Eyed Susans to fill the holes. I think one sprouted in the gravel around the fountain. I tried to grow the rest in a seed grower thinging but nothing came up so I bought a six pack of that other yellow flower that looks like Black Eyed Susan…can’t think of the name right now. Anyway, my garden is very sad and so am I. Sad start to summer gardening.

At least I got a handful of green beans from my vegetable patch.