What Good is Having a Mind, If You Don't Get to Change It Every Now and Then

Well, let's start with the good stuff.  We got rain on Sunday.  Not that brief pitter-pat-drippy-drops, but a turn-on-the-old-tap to the point of a disorganized water-gallop.  And, it lasted for at least an hour, so the garden is well and truly watered.

You may remember that last week I was on the way to get a Japanese Beetle Trap, having given up on my JBBOD.  The lovely folks at Sheridan called me to say that they were in and were waiting for me.  A trap is $45 or so and with the 13% tax we're looking at around $50.00.  When I got there I thought I'd visit the trap in residence to see how it worked.  Of course being Sheridan, it was not hanging on any old stick, but a lovely wrought-iron stand that had been repurposed from its work as a hanging plant stand.    Here's one I spotted in the garden of a neighbour.  You can see it sort of looks like an old-fashioned bomb.

Before I go on. Kudos to the gardener for making the fancy home-made copper pipe holder!


The little round white part in the tail of the yellow plastic is the special replaceable floral/sex scent knob.  That's one of the big features of this trap - the flower scent to bring the girls, the sex scent to bring the boys.  In theory they try to stand on the plastic and zippidydooda fall down into the green part awaiting the executioner (the smiling gardener) to fish them out and drown them, or bag them, or can you believe it, freeze them?

So going back to the story, here I am at Sheridan, contemplating spending $52.00 on a piece of plastic that looks like a replica of a WWII bomb in green and yellow plastic.  I took a good look down into the green part to see how many were awaiting death.  Alas, I couldn't see any, although in fairness it was pretty dark down there.  However, to the left of the fancy stand and trap were the roses, and guess what, many of them had Japanese Beetles.  I figured, alright, perhaps they just arrived, and have no idea that there is a better option just a few feet away.  I encouraged one of the beetles to climb onto my hand and introduced it to the Japanese Beetle Trap murmuring encourage words.  "Look, see how nice this is!"  Not knowing if I had a girl or a boy I talked up both the sexual and floral scents.  He/she didn't budge - so I took the stupid bug and flicked him down into the green pail.  It was at this point that I realized that my bugs were probably no smarter nor enthusiastic about the trap and so decided to return home empty handed and resurrect the Japanese Beetle Bucket of Death (JBBOD).

The good part about Persicaria polymorpha is that it is a large impressive plant with lots of flowers.  The bad part is that it provides an endless supply of food for the beetles.

I was not impressed to find beetles in my Rose of Sharon.  The petals are so delicate that they collapse inward, providing a perfect hiding hole as they eat.

Enough with the beetles.  Here's an arty Rose of Sharon 'Blue Chiffon' from Proven Winners. 

The perennial hibiscus are just starting to bloom.  Reminds me of a girl looking down at her skirt from this angle.

This week will be it for the Hemerocallis.  Here's a happy one after the rain.

 Nothing like a bit of yellow on a cloudy day.

S. 'Matrona' with Perilla that reseeds every year.  The Perilla is quite stunted compared to last year.  You know it's really hot and dry when that happens.

The centre-piece of the veggie garden - Mr. Banana saying thanks for the rain.

 The veggie garden really took a big leap forward.

 I can't believe all the eggplant.



The tall hosta are starting to bloom.  This one comes to my shoulder.

And this is a reminder to myself.  It would seem that all the blue Agastache is gone.  The white is nice, but just not the same.  Must plant more blue for next year!

Though, even though it isn't blue, it is awfully nice to look at a plant without beetles isn't it?