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What (if any) changes have you noticed in your gardens this year from last year?
I noticed a lot more ants. (hate them)
I also see less slugs. Yippee!
Also more diseases/bugs this yr than last yr.

quote:

Also more diseases/bugs this yr than last yr

Me too. Some kind of bugs ate my Heuchera. Blister Beetles were all over my Sweet Autumn Clematis. Jap beetles were all over my Porcelain Berry Vine. And ANTS! Everywhere!

We had a mild winter & I have small Privet seedlings EVERYWHERE! More weeds than ever.

On a good note my ferns are beautiful because I didn't have to cut off last years growth.

Patty~~~ your making me itch all over! LOL Yep more bugs...new ones I've never noticed before!
Some seeds never came up & that doesn't happen to me that often. Some of my rose of sharon seedlings which grew about a foot last year still look healthy but the heat seems to have stunted the growth? I lost a couple fern that I missed when watering during heatwave.

DITTO everything that Patty said plus I have noticed ALOT of cobwebs this year that I haven't noticed in previous years. There are always spider webs, but not as many cobwebs as I've noticed this year. There are also alot more fleas and ticks.

Lots more bugs/worms. I had something eating my zinnia flowers...didn't know anything would bother them. Soapy water worked though.
I have now been invaded by horn worms! My maters are history I think!
Something else killed my pink yarrow...didn't know anything like that either. And my hanging baskets were attacked so bad I pulled it all out & started over about a week ago.
I forgot...like Barb, lots more spiders/webs!

I must not be looking close enough. The only thing I noticed more of was flies. We had to go out and buy more flyswatters there were so many. And the mosquitos are vicious this year. I thought they would not be around much because we are having a lot of weeks without any rain. Guess they prosper in any weather. The news did say there was not enough cold weather last year to kill them off.

Aphids, white fluffy one's that almost look like powdery mildew. Had to pull up all my black and blue salvia, crocosmia and a mandavilla. Broke my heart because the hummers loved feeding on the salvia. Wasp for days, Whiteflys which also sap my pretties. I did find that OFF spray kills them and also kills plants

Lots of ants and I've used diatomaceous earth and a natural ant k-iller on the nests in the garden and near the house. Also still lots of aspen seedlings coming from the roots of a tree DH cut down 2 years ago.

Saw some tiny slugs early on, and had never seen slugs here before. Many years ago DH saw a couple but I think the birds get them and it's really too dry for them most of the time and maybe too cold in the winter. Anyhow I quickly put epsom salts on them and scooped them into the garbage. Haven't seen more since.

Funny, but this year 3 roses that usually have aphids haven't had them. Not sure why.

Don't have many bugs here BUT do have a lot of weeds altho I'm doing my best to get on top of them. It's almost a full time job but once I get everything mulched it should be better. Probably get it done about the time the snow flies! LOL

Some of my sun perennials really struggled in the heat and lack of rain. Zinnias and some celosias died in planters outside my office, I did not know that they could get burned by the sun. I've sent all my beetles to Muddy, so I've seen less. But my nemsias continued to grow during the heat which is strange because they usually stop blooming in August and don't return until it gets cooler in September.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by joyluck:
Saw some tiny slugs early on, and had never seen slugs here before. Anyhow I quickly put epsom salts on them and scooped them into the garbage.
Why waste good "Epsom Salt" on slugs?! I recently put Epsom Salt around a lil rose plant that wasn't doing much at all. It started to really take off after I applied the Epsom Salt. Don't know if the Epsom Salt made it get more shoots, but it wasn't happening all summer long.... I heard regular table salt also does Slugs in too.