We often hold onto principled beliefs that we have the highest respect and concern for the environment, for animals, for people. And then your child or your dog or your garden plant becomes sick and you forget about principled beliefs and throw everything you can think of at the affected entity, to make them better. Your beloveds, your home, garden, friends -- they get a "just this once" pass. Of course they do. Even Ed will break his steadfast commitment to preserving ecosystems and run the AC, feed cats cat food probably shipped from China, design a machine that will throw particles into the air. We none of us are pure in the way we conduct ourselves. Still, many of us do try hard to not stray too much from our convictions and priorities.
In my gardening, I do try not to do harm: I do not use pest and weed control on the lawn or on plants. I dump beetles into soapy water and dig out weeds. I improve the soil organically (either with home made farmette compost or if I have to buy, I stick with the organic). All good?
Well, then along come the roses. You could argue that anyone who plants 60 roses in the scope of one season is a far cry from an environmentalist. Roses get fungus disease. Roses get pests. Every living spore and insect loves a good rose! Sure, after the first couple of mistakes, I now buy only disease resistant roses (or phlox, or other perennials). But they're resistant, not immune.
But hear me out on this: you can grow roses "organically." If you are a commercial business, you have to spray. But if you are a home gardener, you can treat your roses like you might want to treat your lawn: take preventive steps to keep them healthy. Keep a bottle of Neem Oil (oil pressed from the seeds of a neem tree) just in case your best efforts fail and you see a million white bugs covering new buds (well, if you've waited that long, perhaps you should kiss that plant goodbye), feed your plants with stuff like fish emulsion. Stick with the organics and use them minimally. Every once in a while a rose (or any plant) will tell you -- this place isn't for me, I demand more interventions. Use that plant for compost and move on.
That's my vision of a good garden with a large number of roses in it. Vigilance is everything and I love being a vigilant gardener. I check my plants every single day and snip off spotted leaves and dead stalks. I love doing this low key maintenance. It puts me close to the flowers and isn't this exactly what we aim for in life? To be closer to nature?
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Beautiful morning, though certainly on the cooler side. My first slide into jeans rather than shorts. I almost opted for breakfast inside, but the sun was gorgeous and the air felt pure and crisp.
When Millie naps, I remove the rest of my sod for this year's plantings and I finish digging out the holes for new plants. My neighbor told me that the side yard looks like a wild animal attacked it! (It will look like that for a while, since my plants are in transit for at least a week.)
Then of course I decide I can do more and I sketch out an extension and I'll work on digging that out tomorrow!
(Millie! Dont eat the maple leaf off of the tree!)
(is that your favorite? Mine too..)
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The young family is here for dinner. I would guess that the adults were leaning toward a quiet evening. The kids?
High energy levels in some!
The dogs?
High energy levels in both! You'd think that Millie would understand that she is not an equal partner in play to a dog that weighs close to ten times as much as she does. And she is certainly not one who should go for the attack. Goose could slap her down with his tail if he wanted to. Yet, there she is chasing him, jumping up and nipping at his neck, as if she could accomplish a grand slam and come out as the champ. (When he decides to shrug her off and give a light lunge, she runs like crazy to her crate. And then she is out again, chasing the big guy. On repeat.)
Of course, these two do know each other. Perhaps this is what comes from being a family -- you can misbehave and you know that ultimately, you can get away with it. Millie must know that every one of the people here would protect her from harm.
(oh, dogs! how we love them...)
Dinner? Lovely to have them all at the table...
With the two hyper energetic ones (who unmade my bed upstairs??) under the table. Hoping for a handout. Which they do not get. We really do try to be good dog people! And good gardeners, and good in all those ways consistent with our beliefs. Most of the time.
with so much love...
