Monday, May 11, 2009

Slugfest and other garden battles

The spring rains, as I blogged about last, are bringing some not so wanted things to the garden. Chief among them are the slugs. I never had slug problems, or not much of one, until this year. Seems they've found their way into my raised beds and unbeknownst to me, were decimating the vines I was trying to grow on my willow teepee. But I caught them at it this morning and hope to score a knockout punch with them tonight. Below you can see what's been happening to my vines. This one is a hyacinth bean vine (Dolichos lablab).



Are the slugs responsible for the state of my jalapeno pepper plant? Hmm, I'm not sure. Anyone out there know?



The rains have also brought a host of fungi. Below you can see, if you look hard, the powdery mildew which is covering my coreopsis. Hey, I thought these flowers were supposed to be easy as pie to grow?!



And of course, my old friend Mr. Blackspot is back. The Marie Pavie rose has frequent bouts of blackspot and right now she's in tough shape. But I know she'll be back. I have a few other roses with blackspot, one old red rose that was here when we bought the house (might be Cramoisi Superior), the climber Madame Alfred Carriere, and a hybrid tea (what possessed me?) called Veteran's Honor. However, The Fairy, Janet, and Red Cascade are still disease free. If only it would stop raining long enough for me to get out the spray (organic of course).



There. That's enough about the ugly stuff. Besides, it's thundering again. :-( I hope to blog about some nice blooms tomorrow!

8 comments:

  1. This post made me smile even though I know the situation isn't funny. Those little slugs get blamed for any kind of chewing that goes on, don't they? And fungi and blackspot....my goodness, you have your hands full. May the sun shine on you and your garden.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Janet, slugfest is right. There is not an un chewed leaf on my entire property. They are on everything. I would say yes to the jalepeno pepper damage too. Sigh. I have seen the birds picking the slugs off the plants and shredding the leaves in the process too. I don't want to complain about the rain about the drought we have had, so I won't. :-)
    Frances

    ReplyDelete
  3. So sorry! I just noticed slug damage today! Oh, crud! It's not enough that the rains beat the heck out of the PPPP, but now slugs! gail

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gardening is so much about the good with the bad isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  5. So far it hasn't reached my Hyacinth bean vine. But it has my potato vine and red daisies. I'm wondering what has gotten to my foxglove. A week ago it was gorgeous. Now the leaves are bleached out looking...
    Brenda

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've been really disappointed in Marie Pavie. Unlike many of her fellow old garden roses, she looks very shabby due to blackspot. It makes me feel better to know other gardeners are battling that problem with her, too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ugh, powdery mildew... I have not had a year yet that all my sage isn't just covered with it. Is it just me, or does that happen to everyone else's sage as well?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, that is heartbreaking!

    I just can't see any use for slugs, one wonders WHY they exist. They have decimated my Digitalis this year.

    Chloe M.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for visiting! I truly appreciate your visit and comments. If you ask me a question in your comment, I will answer it here.