Beetles and Blights and Black Spot, Oh My!

 

The Japanese beetles are ravaging my roses. The lower leaves of the tomatoes seem to be sporting an intriguing combo of leaf curl, early blight, and perhaps septoria spot. And I've just noticed in the lawn the annual late-summer assortment of odd beige patches.
    Ah, summer. Time to kick back and watch the garden get ravaged by pests and diseases.
    In fact, I'm kinda-sorta serious. If you're fretting about your lawn not being perfect, or your roses struggling, or the death of the green beans that never could grow faster than the rabbits could eat them, at the end of the day, just pour yourself a stiff drink and forget about it. We're fortunate to live in an era where we don't have to rely on the bounty of our gardens.
    In my book, the best thing you can do to control pests and diseases is just be tolerant. Practice general good garden care (soil improvement, weeding, mulching, watering) and smart plant choice (nothing fussy or poorly suited to our Iowa climate) and then, well, let 'er rip. Nature is far more powerful than I am, so I figure if those Japanese beetles want my roses that bad, they can have 'em. It's too much work and would involve too many chemicals to eliminate them. Or the leaf curl. Or the early blight. Or anything else.
    Of course, many would disagree with me. And that's the wonderful thing about gardening. There's seldom an absolutely right--or wrong--way to do it.

Happy Gardening!

Veronica Lorson Fowler