Back from a long weekend with my sister and her family
(celebrating my 42nd birthday). Not much more damage
from deer or insects, but what there has been has come
home to roost: I think I'm going to lose my R. sericea
pteracantha (growing so nicely after I finally got a wee
rooted cutting this spring -- nurserymen say that it is perhaps
the hardest rose to propagate from cuttings) and my R.
brunonii (and it was all leafy and blooming just a couple
weeks ago!). Way thick grass, a creeping variety that spreads
by stolons and perhaps rhizomes and is slightly blue-grey,
is crowding out the cleared areas near the roses that are in
the ground, and hand pulling (perhaps with a pair of good
gloves) seems to be necessary. Another batch of the pepper
and egg and garlic mix might be called for: bought 18 ounces
of hot dried peppers, dozen and a half eggs...

A nine-foot electric fence starts to look more and more
appealing. Or a pack of vicious dogs, even though I'm much
more of a cat man.

How does one bounce back from gardening disaster? It's
getting harder and harder as I get older and more cynical.
Dead china firs, dead bamboos, live sweetgum and persimmon
shoots everywhere...and I can't even get a big healthy thorny
Mermaid that's too big for Bambi and his chums.

Mark., feeling a bit blue