First blossom Rosa Therese Bugnet 2017

What a beauty good for the insects to.

Twice a day I pick off the army worms... It's a bad year for them this year... 7 or 12 year cycles of infestations since time immemorial. In my youth I can remember swathes of slippery highway, where they crossed en masse from one side of the road to the other... and whole, huge hardwoods almost completely defoliated. They travel from tree to tree in the forest via a silk line! The leaves returned again by August and then autumn started in Sept...It's another stress on the forest that we don't see. The blighters like roses too. I've even picked them off my hollyhocks!

What a shame Lori I ve just read if you keep your grass short keep mowing it it deters them and they move on other than that insecticide.

LOL... I spent most of the afternoon, yesterday, doing just that, Tbp. I have so much grass to cut that I could spend 4 days and have to start back at the beginning on the 5th day! It never ends. That's why I'm planting and encouraging so many ground covers... creeping jenny, creeping charlie, asters, thyme, oregano, white clover, trefoils...etc, etc.. I won't use chemical fertilizers or plant growth auxins (defoliants) and have a seriously effective weed eater (strimmer). I make every effort possible but if the plant does not thrive or cannot survive then I let it go. My learning experience since coming here is if it grows well in nature it has a home here...If I don't want it.. I squish it ...I rip it out...if it gets too aggressive I rip it out... but I won't use anything chemical.

Great idea getting the creeping and ground covering plants Lori sound s that you have a lot of ground . I dont blame you not using chemicles one bit . I like your method I do the same if it is nt doing well or I dont like a plant. I wonder what creatue would kill or eat those worms

I'm getting too old to slog around lawn mowers and weed eaters, so as I see it, I have a few years yet to encourage the meadow plants and wild flowers and establish perennials that don't need my constant care. Once I catch on to the rhythm of nature around here it should be easier... lol.. it occurs to me that I'm dreaming! as my niece would say: "Whatever floats your boat!"
I was thinking the same thing about who would eat these worms for me, this afternoon as I picked and squished them from three apple trees... there are so many of them that the birds are swaying on the branches and loosening their vests... maybe I could encourage the raccoons and little bruin too...!

You shall have to get astro turf for where you cant cope. We can all dream no harm in dreaming but I think your idea is great myself I always say where there s a will there is always a way.

Yes if raccoons and little bruin eats them I would encourage them in. Hope the birds get them all.