coffee grounds scare off lily beetles

A few weeks ago, I had a brain wave - check the post from May 6. I had grabbed a bag of spent coffee grounds from those nice people at Starbucks, and soothed my soul with a latte. What best to do with this black gold? Then I had a brain wave. Maybe they would discourage lily beetles, which every year turn my lovely lilies into a chewed, pooped on mess. So I sprinkled the coffee grounds onto the centres of every lily I have - and I have a lot.
At first I thought it might be the cold weather that was keeping them away, but even on a warm day there are now considerably fewer of the scarlet nasties - not even 10 percent of the numbers last year. The coffee has to be reapplied after a rain.
I would love to hear from someone in blog land who has also tried this experiment.


I was walking through a garden centre on a blustery cold day when this iris caught my eye. It's a colour I have never seen before. So of course I bought it and gave it a good home.
The blur at the bottom of the pic is the cat's tail. He's quite the publicity hog.

late signs of spring

The heleborus is one of the first flowers to bloom in my garden. They are a woodland perennial, and like partial shade, and rich moist soil. These nodding, downward facing flowers will last through most of the summer. Gradually their colour will fade, but they are still beautiful.

The first spider web of the season is a beautiful thing. Invisible till it's touched with dew first thing on a misty morning.

15 years ago, I planted 3 dead-looking sticks that promised to be ostrich ferns. One I actually planted upside down in the fall. In the spring, I dug it up, flipped it around, and it thrived. The lesson: when in doubt, plant sideways.

waiting for the hummers

It's already June, and I haven't seen a single humming bird this year. At first I thought it might be because it's still so cold, but this might be the real reason: Amber the cat

rules are meant to be broken

Back in the fields behind my house is a big pile where spring bulbs are dumped after blooming at Veseys. Hyacinths, daffodils, tulips and scilla are scattered everywhere, and here they stay over the summer, fall, and winter. The following spring, they sprout and bloom, still lying sideways on top of the ground.







Here you can see bulbs which are blooming after a few years of being dumped here. They seem to be trying to dig themselves into the soil.

What's funny is that they are blooming and breaking all the rules. The books say to dig a hole and plant bulbs 2.5 times their height, set them pointy side up, cover them well, fertilze, mulch, etc.

But here they are, doing very well on their own, with no help from a rule-keeping gardener.

mountains out of molehills

After a winter of record snowfalls and drifts in my back yard, as the snow melted I was horrified to find mole trails all through the grass. What a mess! And why do moles dig bother to dig such shallow trenches if they are under the snow anyways? Maybe they eat the roots of the grass.
Anyways, I couldn't believe the damage. We have been at this house for 17 years and never have seen the like. I figured I'd be doing a whole lot of raking and seeding to fix the mess. But now, 2 months later, the mole trails are gone - the grass healed itself without any help from me. In a future spring when this happens again, I'll just take a chill pill and trust that nature will take care of it for me!

lily beetles

This is the dreaded lily beetle, scourge of the garden. It's only about a quarter of an inch long, but it has friends. Lots of them. And together they do grievous damage to my beautiful lilies. Asiatic lilies seem to be hit the hardest. These guys lurk on the ground in the early spring, waiting to pounce on the greenery as the first leaves push out of the ground, and they don't quit till frost comes around again in the fall. And their babies are worse. The adults lay eggs on the underside of lily leaves. The hatchlings have a brilliant way to hide - they cover themselves in their own poop, so that birds won't recognize them as prey.
I waste a lot of time picking them off and crushing them or dumping them into a dish of soapy water. If I return to the plant I cleaned off an hour ago, more have moved in. Some people I know have become so frustrated, they have yanked out all their lilies. But that is blaming the victim, don't you think?
I had a brain wave the other day. I brought home a lovely bag of coffee grounds from those nice people at Starbucks. I decided to conduct an experiment. I scattered coffee grounds over every lily head, making sure lots ended up where the leaf meets the stem, which coincidentally is where lily beetles most like to hang out. Will this keep the bugs at bay?
Now, 24 hours later, I checked the lilies, and the bugs are only on the plants where the coffee was washed off by rain.
After doing some reseach on the internet, I'm confused. Some sources say coffee grounds are a valuable source of nitrogen, magnesium, and potassium, are great for acid-loving plants, and make great compost. Other sources say beware - our soils on the east coast are already acid, and coffee grounds make the soil even more acidic. Plus, pure coffee in a thick layer on the soil encourages the growth of mould.
I'll keep the observations going for a while, and report back.

The picture below shows what lily beetles do best - chew holes in lilies and make baby beetles.

Ephemerals

I happened to glance out my second story window and a few tiny hot pink dots caught my eye.

Under a flowering crab apple tree, struggling to push through dead hosta leaves, were some tiny beautiful cyclamens, supported by spindly, crooked stems. The leaves are beautiful too - heart-shaped and drizzled with silver.

These hardy cyclamen are considered ephemerals - flowering plants that last just a very short time. They are woodland plants that need to go through their life cycle: making leaves and flowers and seeds in the short few weeks of full sun before the trees above leaf out and cast the area in shade. Cyclamen don't last more than a few years in my garden, but I keep buying new ones for the jolt of beauty they provide.

Purple iris reticulata and snow drops will show their flowers for just a short time before disappearing for another year. Just a few inches tall, they both bloom while there is still snow on the ground, and sometimes under the snow in stubborn winters.

This yellow iris is another ephemeral. It blooms for a few short weeks, attracting early bees and flies, then disappears. Long grass-like leaves come later.