Beetles on attack!

Luckily, my garden has never been plagued much by Japanese Beetles, but from the other gardening blogs I read, they are menace to some. From a usually non-garden source, here comes information on Japanese Beetles and traps you can use to reduce their populations in your garden.

Gadgets to the rescue?

Japanese Beetle Traps Stop Unwanted Guests from Eating Your Plants and Trees Japanese Beetle Traps are available from Amazon.com and its affiliates. [ Photo: Amazon.com ] The most unpleasant surprise of relocating to Newtown, PA was finding out that the area of town where we live is infested with Japanese Beetles. According...

(Via Operation Gadget.)

A few minutes in the garden today

Work has been absorbing all my time lately, so all I have been able to do is look at it from my office window. Thankfully, Rosanne and Joe have been doing a great job keeping it watered and neat. We have been having the firs long spate of hot weather this week, but the plants have been doing ok, thanks to them.

The old, dead apricot in the old backyard finally gave up the ghost as one end of the family clotheslines. I put it in several years ago when we re-discovered that air-drying our clothes, especially my ubiquitous Polo shirts, made them last months longer. Today, I extended the line to another, live tree a few yards away. I still need some help to get the line tensioned, but the main work is done. It will have to be re-tensioned in a week or so, after the few loads are hung, as the rope stretches quite a bit in its first few weeks.

I had also noticed the the wisteria vine was, once again, attempting to destroy its trellis and take over the surrounding trees, the garage, the air conditioner and the telephone line to the house. A few minutes with my trimmers will keep things in check until I can do my first, dramatic pruning of the beast this fall. It was horribly unkempt when we moved in and the years and made it more-so. I plan on bringing it back down to a few leaders per trellis leg, removing or replacing the lattice parts of the trellis and being more attentive to training it onto the trellis properly. Not only will this make it easier to maintain, but it should result in more blooms come next spring.

Our big summer party is coming in a few weeks and a cousin is arriving from Sicily this Tuesday. Maybe I can put this strapping 18-year-old to work helping me neaten the garden. I need to blow leaves throughout and do some minor trimming and pruning. Nothing big, but the heat does make it feel like more work.

Being busy with work is a good thing, but ignoring the garden always gives me a gnawing sensation that I am not doing my best for the house. We recently had the living room and dining room patched and re-painted, so now it is time to expend a little elbow grease outdoors.

Hope your garden is blooming well! Keep digging! -- Douglas