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The Garden is Thriving

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Yes I’m still neglecting my garden, but it truly is thriving despite the lack of care. I’ve been so ill the last few days I haven’t been able to do much more than look out the window at all the buds developing on the roses and other flowers.

Luckily I’m married. My husband has been watering the garden every few days, and other than the pruning that I so desperately need to do on half my roses, the watering seems to be all that needs to be done.

Everything is covered in buds or is blooming. Two of my clematis, well two that I’ve noticed so far, possibly there’s more, are blooming! I ate my first homegrown strawberry of the season a little while ago too.

We’re expecting rain later today, and tomorrow. Possibly thunderstorms. I’m sure the garden will be overgrown soon if I don’t get out there and start trimming.






Insects on bearded iris leaves

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A visitor to As the garden grows told me that they’d seen some tiny red bugs on their bearded Iris leaves. Blasting the plant with water didn’t help because the bugs came back out again once the leaves dried off.

Spraying the plants with a blast of water was actually a good move and it can be helpful with many types of insect infestations. The insects that she saw were probably aphids. They love new growth on plants and you’ll often find them on tender young leaves or flower buds. They suck the plants juices and can get unsightly if they aren’t controlled.

Aphids breed quite quickly. If you have plants that are infested by aphids you should give them a blast of water daily. You might also add a drop or two of dishwashing liquid to a spray bottle and spray the areas of the plant that are heavily infested. The soap will smother the aphids.

Whatever you do you do not want to kill any ladybugs. Ladybugs love eating aphids and they are beneficial insects in your garden. So, if you use the soapy water method try to watch where you are spraying and avoid hitting any ladybugs.

An emerging hyacinth

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Hyacinth buds

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On Friday, after the scent of blooming hyacinths drew me out of the house I went outside with my camera. There were so many different spring flowers blooming!

I don’t know how many photos I ended up taking but it had to have been at least 50 pictures. I’m so thankful that I have a digital camera as it gives me the ability to take as many photos as I like and discard any that don’t turn out well.

I found this small hyacinth just getting ready to go into bloom. I love how the red tinged mauve buds contrast with the bright green leaves.

This hyacinth does look a little sparse. I’ll have to check on it later today and see if more buds came out. It might be that it’s a new bulb, or one that’s beginning to lose it’s strength. Hyacinth bulbs don’t always have the longest lifespan.

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