Tuesday, June 19, 2012

and it's summer...


Japanese beetles

The garden has been busy, despite my lack of time to tend the garden or blog about it. I’ve been enjoying the veggies and herbs that I planted, as well as fruit that I did not plant; volunteer blackberries are so fun! Japanese beetles are wreaking havoc on my knockout roses and other ornamentals. Also, I’m struggling to keep up with the watering, especially now that it’s practically summer and we are in a precipitation deficit.

Part of my garden inattentiveness here of late can be blamed on my trip to Italy last month. And what a fabulous diversion through ancient ruins, art, architecture, and culture it was! While we didn’t have time to tour all of the gardens I wished, I was surprised to see Acanthus and poppies growing as weeds all over Rome; if only our weeds could be so striking. Acanthus was also immortalized in ancient sculpture and architectural decoration throughout Italy.

Acanthus popping up in the ancient Roman Forum