serpent in the garden

The garden has quickly progressed from a cold, brown, dead looking thing to a vibrant, colourful, lovely thing.  Solomon's seal is popping up like alien worms.  Fritillaria is showing off checkered flowers.  The daffs are laughing.  And if you look closely, you can see the tree peony I planted 5 years ago is finally going to produce two buds.  I should be happy.  But the serpent in the garden is the dreaded lily beetles.  The lilies are barely out of the ground, and they are already striking in force, eating big holes in the leaves, and ready to do a summer's worth of damage.  Last year I kept them at bay with hand picking and liberal doses of spent coffee grounds applied EVERY DAY.  And when I returned from holidays, the lilies were an unholy mess, the leaves and flowers chewed off, and gooey beetle larvae and their poop all over the plants.  I have made a very unhappy decision.  As unfair as it is to blame the victim, I'm going to dig up all the lilies, even the creamy orange Asians I love so much.  Maybe some year the bugs will run their course, and I will be able to enjoy lilies once again.