by Annette Liike

Created on: July 01, 2007

When our family moved into our new home eight years ago I decided to plant perennial gardens throughout our yard. I had looked through dozens of gardening magazines and spent numerous hours planning and designing my new beds. I purchased my new plants from a master gardener who also gave me tons of advice to help them grow to be real beauties. I chose bleeding hearts, delphinium, Shasta daisies, English Lavender, bee balm, butterfly bushes, hostas to name just a few.

My garden exploded with all of my tender loving care. The bee balm's brilliant fire red blossoms next to the effervescent yellow of the shasta daisies and the vibrant purple of my delphinium was a sight to behold. My friends were in awe of the beauty of my garden. I was so impressed with myself I beamed with pride. My hostas grew full and lush. My bleeding heart bushes were filled with pink heart shaped flowers. Everything that I had planted had grown to double and triple it's original size. My perennial gardens had far surpassed my expectations and as I walked by each bed at summers end I knew that next year it would be even better.

As much as I love the heat of summer I dread and dislike the cold of winter. Michigan is probably not the right location for my body type. Once the nights grew cold and days grew shorter I no longer went outside. However, the first 65 degree day in April I decided to take a look at all of my perennial beds to see if anything was starting to come alive. To my horror I saw nothing in any of the beds. Not a branch, not a leaf, not a sprig. Everything was gone. All of my hard work had vanished. What huge pest could have done this? What giant rabbit or deer could eat every plant so that there was nothing left? What terrible pest had invaded my garden and completely eliminated it?

I came inside and shared to my husband my horror story. As I told him of the dilemma his face grew pale and the look of guilt was unmistakable. He confessed that he did a fall clean up and completely pulled out every one of my perennials thinking I would have to plant them again as you do annuals. He had no idea that the plants would come back to life in the spring. My pest infestation was actually my husband not a giant rodent or infestation of pests. My beautiful garden was ripped from the grown by a human pest. Needless to say he now asks me to help him when he does the fall clean up.

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