grumpy gardener

With the warmth and rain, I haven't spent much time in the garden. The whole outside feels a bit like flooded old building -- everything is damp and the tall perennials that hovered so proudly in my garden are now beat down. This start and stop moisture has made mowing interesting. No rain, I don't mow for two weeks. Now I cannot get into the yard and get it mowed. Maybe today.

The onslaught of japanese beetles is horrific. They're chewing roses (as per usual), hollyhocks, and I found several yesterday on the pole beans in the vegetable garden.

This month is a time for a central Indiana gardener to question whether roses are worth it? Someone in choir yesterday said that they knew somebody who had perfect roses. And I said that someone is involved in major chemical applications. Between the mildew, rampant black spot, and the cursed j. beetles, I am beginning again to question whether the roses are worth such heartache. They are, and come fall when they catch a second wind, I'll smile. And in the winter, when I am lusting over rose catalogs, I'll dream again about what to plant.

But not this month.