Spring… Beauty and the Beast

It's nearly four weeks since I posted photographs of the garden. Spring had arrived and now it is blooming lovely. Some blossom is no more and others are replacing it in abundance. The Magnolia is always a graceful monument to the season and our many Camellia shrubs have never been better. The Azaleas are preparing to outdo the rest, with the Rhododendrons close behind. Plenty of other flowers and shrubs too are coming out, while others wait until later on to fully reveal their beauty.
And yet a beast lurks among my pretty maidens. In fact, a number of them. The hard-leafed evergreen plants — particularly Camellias and Rhododendrons (about 50 plants) — are becoming affected with sooty mould Cushion Scale. It is all over the garden. Something to do with climate change? Other bugs are less obvious. The lawn is mostly moss. So much needs doing. We can allow 'woodland' plants to grow among the shrubs, the more objectionable ones are weeded out. No problem there. But, unfortunately, we are not getting any younger to deal with all the work involved with the major 'beasts' . Decisions have to be made...