A cool front came through on Friday night
Making Saturday a perfect gardening day.
Most of the day was in the 80’s
Not bad for late June.
So Coco and I spent the entire day
WEEDING
The thing about having record rains in May
Is that June brings lots of weeds.
I’m not complaining
We so needed the rain
As do many
Who have not been as blessed.
It’s just a simple fact
With rain
Comes weeds.
I don’t really mind weeding
Though I did get a bit tired of it
By Saturday night.
But weeding gives you
A “plants-eye” view of the garden
Since you are sitting or crawling along the ground.
It’s a very different viewpoint
Than walking through a garden.
A change of perspective
A paradigm shift
So here’s what I noticed
As I crawled amongst the weeds
I have some serious something going on
All through my garden.
It’s a white powdery film on
Dahlias
And Roses
And Euonymous
And who knows what else.
I’m guessing it’s moisture related.
I’ve been cutting back the affected areas
If possible
But that isn’t always the case.
I dislike spraying things on my garden
So I try to avoid that.
If you have any suggestions
Let me know.
There are also lots of those nasty
Little black worms.
They love to eat the leaves
Of Gloriosa Daisies
Purple Coneflowers
And Sunflowers.
Which is interesting
Since they all have prickly leaves.
They show up overnight
In mass
They will totally cover a leaf
And suck the life out of it.
Which makes it easy to gently pull off the leaf
And step on it till all are dead.
Gardening is such a gentile pastime!
But the view from the ground
Is not all weeds and bugs.
It’s also the vantage point
That gives you lovely little vignettes.
Purple Coneflowers are especially happy this year.
As are the Gloriosa Daisies.
The Oriental Lilies began to open this week.
Lacing the garden with their intoxicating scent.
It’s interesting.
Visitors to my garden
Never seem to notice the weeds.
They only see flowers.
Perspective
Gail
Happy 11 months Harper & Henry
.
In My Garden 
Hi, I haven’t commented before on your beautiful posts. You asked about the white residue and I’m wondering: Do you have spittlebugs? They make that foamy glop on the stems and hide in it. Later, the bugs are gone but it does leave a white residue like that. They do no harm, just a little messy. Your plants look very healthy so I’m wondering if you need to spray or cut back. I wouldn’t spray. It’s going to be 108 here in S. Oregon and no rain. Pacific NW? Don’t recognize it.
108 sounds really dastardly for you and your garden. I’m trying to be patient and not spray. We’ll see what happens.
Do hope you get rain very soon. Things seem to be upside down this summer where the weather is concerned. Thanks for reading.
Well happy you with a Harper and a Henry in your life – future gardeners for sure. 🙂 Not complaining here either, but we are getting rain at least every other day. I’ve got weeds on steroids and like you things I’ve never seen. In my raised beds I have these mats of weeds that look like sprouts. I’ve had to scrape the entire top layer off but it keeps popping up in other places. I wish we could share some moisture with CA and I could see some blooms instead of weeds. 🙂 Rain forecasted on and off all week.
Hang in there the clouds will clear eventually. Gardening season is always an unknown.
Love your blog and those babies are just darling. Just returned from Rehoboth Beach, DE.with 3 grandchildren in tow. Precious times. P.S. Loved the coastal flora especially the hydrangeas!!!
Thank you. We do have a thing for hydrangeas, don’t we.
Gail