Although June usually ushers in the gentler garden, the kaleidoscopic colors of May might linger with us a bit longer. The Extension agents in Madison reported that we are more than 100 Growing Degree Days below average. Lots of plants are behind, so try to be a little patient when evaluating viability.

Brightly colored butterflies are a welcome visitor to any garden. We value them for their usefulness as pollinators, as well as for their beauty. Attracting them involves planting shrubs and perennials that serve the needs of all life stages of the butterfly, providing places to lay eggs, food plants for the caterpillars and the adults, and spots to form chrysalides.

The beauty of any garden isn’t in the eye of the beholder. It’s in the eye of the garden’s creator. As I stroll through my neighborhood or drive from one place to another, I am often amazed by what constitutes a garden. And I don’t mean this in a manner that is judging good ideas from bad ones, but from the point of view that any place that a gardener has arranged began with a kernel of an idea and a desire to share it with passers-by.

Late May is usually a gardener’s favorite time of year! Every yard looks a bit like Munchkinland in technicolor. This spring’s weather has certainly delayed almost everything. So we find ourselves looking forward to a stellar June.

Not much has changed for treatment of adult beetles, but there are a couple of really good options for controlling the grub stage. And since a Japanese Beetle spends about 85% of its life underground as a grub, exercising control over them while they’re in your lawn is the most effective method.