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.

My garden is glorious and I am really proud of it. Friends ask, “did you plant something different this year? I don’t remember it that way.”  (I didn’t; it is just that this is the best time of year for it.)

Really it wasn’t much work. I sneak fifteen minutes here and there to fix it up or plant seeds or bulbs. The kids planted this new section with me one Saturday. It is growing nicely although one daisy died right away.

We also planted corn in the vegetable patch. I learned a new secret to planting it here in the cool coastal area. From Pat Welch’s great book, I learned to start it in a plastic baggy, which I set on the computer printer for a few days. The corn which was put between two damp paper towels sprouted right away. Then we had to find room. I don’t think we planted enough to polinate so I am trying to figure out where to put more. I have pumpkins, tomatoes, beans, arugula and corn all up. Peas and cilantro seem to be dying now.

The sweet peas are blooming and one of my most gorgeous Austin rose is pink all over. The others seem to have tiny buds. I feel like they are minatures….not sure what I bought or maybe it just takes them a year or two.

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That is a slide show of some of the plants and flowers. The roses in the vases are my Austin roses. I have made some gorgeous bouquets.

Here are some photos from my garden:

It has been a while since I’ve written. My garden has been a small priority in the busy month of December. Needless to say, I did plant two or three boxes (yes boxes) of pansies that I dug out of the ground at Weidners Gardens in Encinitas. I took the kids and we had a great time running through their incredible fields of pansies and violas with spades and cardboard boxes to fill. The dirt there is so enviable. I try to dig up as much of it with each plant as I can and transport it home. (Don’t tell them!) 

Home with the six-year-old helping me plant all the pansies we dug up is another situation. Did I mention that each plant is about as big as a dinner plate? I think they are $1 each. You get giant, gorgeous, healthy plants that grow and grow. No root rot. Ever have that fatal disease with your pansies? They get yellow and sort of wiggle off their stalks? Dead before you know it. No way, with these babies. They are hearty and so easy….anyway, my six-year-old wanted to help plant all of them. And they still lived. While trying to dig all the holes before she “helped” too much, I heard her say, “Mommy these are so soft.” I thought she’d have a petal pressed between her fingers, but no, she was holding the roots of a giant pansy plant, smashing them and feeling their silky threads. Then she planted them.  They lived anyway. 

This brings me to the topic of this blog — things that kill your garden. Okay, that sounds kind of harsh. I mean to say that there are some common garden nuisances that I encounter, and I thought I’d share some of my techniques for helping fix these problems. This is getting long so I included a few photos at the start. I’ll write the rest later. I am out trying to take a picture of that gopher (or maybe it’s a mole.) I’m not sure what it is that leaves little mounds of dirt as well as a system of tunnels. My husband and I caught a mole under a flowerpot one day, but that is another story and another nuisance. Another day, another garden nuisance.