By Gail Jacobs
Master Gardener

September always brings me mixed emotions. Part of me is glad that summers added chores are nearly done. After doing all of the riding lawn mowing done one night after work then the push trimming the next night and lastly using the weed eater on the following night! Of course, all of this done weather permitting then starting the whole cycle the following week if you are lucky and cooler weather with rain does not makes it grow like crazy!

Then there is making my end of season chore list on my mind. Deadheading, removing weed trees, leave removal, transplanting, closing the pool and winter weed and feed all of this makes me understand why people retire to Arizona or Utah. Yes, I am glad I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then part of me is sad. No more lounging in the water at least here in Indiana, and if you consider average life span, I only have 22 more summers.

You can get a sense of happiness imagining all of the beauty of a new spring flowerbed. Thanks to my friend Lori who shared a rose catalog, I was envisioning ripping up the mediocre front yard and laying out paths lined with David Austin Roses. Less lawn to mow but a lot more mulch. Adding more roses causes me to remember my encounter with “Rose gardener’s disease” or Sporotrichosis, a fungal infection caused by the prick of a rose thorn.

I found this ailment annoying, I actually saw my doctor about it and he told me to leave it alone that it would go away eventually and it did. Now I really try wearing my gloves and long sleeves when I work with the roses, not that this is foolproof but it is helpful. Thinking about fungus, this time of the year brings some interesting yard pop ups.  Those strange fungus here today gone tomorrow, I prefer the spring sponge ones fried in butter.  Just a few odd funguses you may see in your yard.  Please do not eat these shown below.

I hope you get outside while it is so very beautiful and enjoy the changing seasons!