How long have you had your garden? When I started this one in 2013, the pest-bugs found it the following year -- 2014. They weren't around until I added their food sources -- the roses. Similarly, the good-bugs appeared the year after that -- in 2015. Again, they weren't around until I added their food sources -- the pest-bugs eating the roses. I've also paid attention to finding perennials and annuals which attract the good-bugs -- yarrows are one good bunch, as are things in the carrot family, and many others. Look for things that have lots of tiny flowers held together in larger heads -- these tend to be nectar sources for things like adult lacewings, whose larvae eat all sorts of pest-bugs.

It's tough in the beginning, but the good-bugs will find you if you have plenty of food for them. If you want to get it going faster, see if any beneficial insects are available for purchase where you are. I don't know how that goes in Australia.

:-)

~Christopher

Oh, goodness. Nobody's laughing at you: all gardeners have despaired over something, or many things: scale, thrips, Rose Rosette Disease, deer, porcupines, nematodes, fire, drought, hurricanes....

Others are going to be better informed about your problems than I am, but my guess is that your garden is going through growing pains and will eventually leave quite a bit of the pest problem behind. It takes time to create an ecosystem; time for pests and predators to find an equilibrium; time for the soil to develop the microlife that promotes healthy plants. You may find that some plants just don't work for you; or that some are currently so bug-ridden that you may have to get rid of them and try them again later. Also take note that the end of the growing season is high time for diseases and pests. In the northern hemisphere hardly anybody's garden looks good in August, especially not the kind of flower-rich cottage garden you're attempting. Even the good care you give your plants may be helping the bad bugs. In nature ecosystems go through down times of drought, for example: if you water through what your climate's dry period you're providing a resource for all the aphids and scale.

Scale's horrible, I agree. Some of my plants get it, but it seems to be seasonal and doesn't do much damage that I see. I did once buy a sweetbox that turned out to be infested, and was never able to get rid of it: I ended destroying the sweetbox.

Your roses look good! Enjoy the good things in your garden (and avert your eyes from the bad)!

Scale is an especial pain. I have found that diatomaceous earth curbs it significantly. Since it is the sharp skeletons of ancient insects and operates by cutting rather than by chemical means, you do not have to worry about harmful chemicals. You do have to be careful not to breathe it.

Ants can be controlled by a good ant trap (these use boric acid and sugar - the correct amount/balance is crucial so find a good brand which should eliminate an ant hill in about half a week). Neither boric acid nor sugar is a harmful chemical for humans and pets. Here in the US Terra is a good brand.

Aphids usually attack the soft new growth at the end of shoots. I just slip my fingers over the end of the shoot and pull them off the end, squishing them as I go. (I have become immune to "Yuck" factor). Here anyway aphids are easy to deal with.

Cath

PS Edited to correct the spelling of Diatomaceous Earth.

No one is laughing, and we've all been there in one way or another. By the way, the best way to destroy an ant hill is to boil water in a fairly large pot and pour it on the ant hill. Boil more water if you still see activity and do it again. It always works and is the easiest way to get rid of them.

I planted a cottage garden with many companion plants among the roses at first. It looked so beautiful. I didn't have any insect infestations that I could see, but one by one the plants disappeared. For years now I've been left with reblooming irises, sea lavender, trailing geraniums (which should properly be called pelargoniums), marjoram (which gets very large and the bees love) and rosemary plants on top of the stone wall where not much else will grow. For the first time the rabbits are eating the sea lavender, and I've had to put chicken wire around a transplanted Blush Noisette) and a Texas rose called Cole's Settlement since no amount of viciously thorned rose branches around them seemed to deter the bunnies from eating the young growth. The ever-escalating heat may very well kill some of the young tea roses and there is not a thing I can do about that. I know now that my garden will never again be what it was, but I've come to accept that. The reality and the dream can often be far apart, and you may have to adjust your expectations, but you'll find tougher plants that will do well for you, or the ones you have will recover. You've had beginner's luck, just as I did, but a cottage garden is one of the most difficult to maintain in less hospitable climates like yours and mine. Don't give up, because you will find your way to a beautiful garden in time.

Everyone has already basically said what I want to say: your garden is young, give it time! Don't give up and don't start using poisons,etc ; they are counter-productive. (I know; that was a mistake I made when starting out). You're doing everything right and, yes, I think we all have times when we feel overwhelmed and defeated. And, yes, it's quite normal that by the end of summer gardens start looking peaky. Your roses look GREAT-that is more than I even hope for at summer's end (plants may look OK but no flowers for me). These feelings will pass, as feelings always do,so have courage! And,btw, another anti-ant trick I learned on this forum from Jeri : using cinnamon sticks; plunge them into the ant-hills...

What is an Australian bush garden? If that is an actual thing and not just a joke, I would do that! Mix your fav Australian natives with the roses and nix the ones your struggling the most with, atleast for now. Try them again in a few years :) I know we always get wax flowers in n America around this time, those are gorgeous!

foxgloves would be hard to to give up on for me, I would still grow them but fewer. They are a personal favorite.

No ones laughing. I'm sorry you're struggling.

When we moved into our house we had such bad scale on a huge (probably 15 ft tall and 10 ft wide) gardenia that all its leaves where black with hardened sooty mold. I couldn't get it off. No leaves were green and the blooms browned almost right away because they were crawling with thrips. I tried all the herbal/natural remedies. Nothing worked because they were so established and the plant so big. I used Bayer shrub and tree on it. I was loathe to do it but a one time drench application solved the problem. I am now able to keep up with any new infestations by removing them manually.

I'm not suggesting you do this, I just didn't want to be hypocritical. Last year I bought ladybugs off the internet and they really helped.

HY, don't give up. I am sure I will get some problems one day. Great suggestions from everyone. Chris suggest lacewings. Can you buy them ? Besides, I am sure good bugs will come. I know , I will freaked out too. When time comes you can advise me

I guess u will be buying lacewings and tons of lady bugs.

I read there are plants that deter alphids. I can't remember which but it a few herb plants like chives, dills etc. I wonder if you put some herbs in a blender and add to water and water the Roses will that help ?? Chris what do you think ?

I am just thinking my mind out aloud.. sorry

I can be wrong. But just a suggestion and curious what other experience rosarian thinks besides waiting. I am gross out already..opps. Sorry :)

Jin

Heading out to get my roses.

Nobody is laughing at all, that I'm sure of!

I would second the idea of supplementing natural predators with green lacewings, beneficial nematodes, etc... They make a tremendous difference and this year I find myself wondering if they will even have enough pests to eat!

But I have to say, your garden certainly doesn't look distressed. They never seem to get as distressed as their owners though!

We started out spraying regularly -- that's what we were told to do. Then, one of our dogs began to seizure every time we sprayed.

HE was far more important than a pest-free garden, so we quit spraying, cold turkey.

It took three years for the chemicals to vanish, and the "good guys" to move in. We have lady bugs, certainly, and wonderful birds that clear the garden of aphids in a day. And hundreds of Western Fence Lizards -- who eat any insect they can find.

The drought in recent years has changed our garden, and I know we'll never again have the immense, lush landscape we once have. But we also have healthy dogs. It's a valid trade-off, IMHO.

Thanks so much for posting that story jerijen. So glad that your dog is better!

HY, you are not alone! We've all soooo been there. And time after time, we go there again. And again. We persevere and find joy and beauty in our gardens before the next infestation or plague...which occurs right before another frantic forum post and more pest eviction or disease fighting strategies and then more joy and beauty. We gardeners are nothing if not resilient. For the record, your garden looks 1000x more glorious than mine during its low points. PAOK is gorgeous! Somewhere, I have a stack of really embarrassing photos of my garden at its worst. I'll see if I can dig it up so we can all shudder together. Ha, ha.

I'm firmly in Jeri's camp where chemicals are concerned, but I also know that sometimes, one-big-hit before organic methods can produce immediate practical and psychological relief. IF I hit a few plants with something toxic, I'd be very selective and then water thoroughly after success.

These days, I'm more likely to cut something way back, douse with the strongest but least damaging environmentally friendly solution (Safer products and others) and repeat while bulking up natural predators and plant nutrients. My current antagonists are cane borers that I'm battling with Elmer's Glue All. For #%}€*&$! aphids, I use insecticidal soap. For squirrels, I cage small plants and rose starts. For years of persistent blackspot or rust, I rip out the rose and choose a resistant variety.

I (almost) never use toxic chemicals in my garden, but once or twice, I've been cornered into the unthinkable. There was once a ground wasps nest in the parking strip and under our sidewalk where oodles of kids run by and strollers roll by all day long. It couldn't be easily or safely removed, and the situation was looking very risky. My husband and I resorted to chemicals. I mourned each time I saw the straggling wasps trying to return to their poisoned and blocked nest. In TX, I know that fire ants can be a real danger in a garden. I once stepped in a nest. Enough said.

I hope more forum members from your region join in with suggestions. I wish I could offer more in the way of advice, but my climate and my pests are temperate rainforest ones. In the meantime, know that you are not alone, and you and your garden will survive and thrive! Carol

Aphids were mentioned. It appears that Nature took care of the aphid "problem" long before gardeners appeared on the scene.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1570-7458.1985.tb03463.x/abstract?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+on+11+May+from+10:00-12:00+BST+(05:00-07:00+EDT)+for+essential+maintenance&userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=

Everything said above is good advice. Relax. WAIT for nature to make progress in your brand new garden. It takes a while for nature's bad bug fighters to move in, but in the meanwhile spraying poison all over is a very bad idea - you will kill them (I know, because the first year I had a garden here there was a white fly infestation, and I sprayed malathion all over. HA! None of the fruit trees had any fruit the following year, because I had killed all of the good bug polinators) .

Your pictures are lovely. If I were you, I would just stop peering at every plant, trying to find something wrong. Look at the garden from further away. I don't know what kind of ants you have - I realized some ants can be huge and dangerous. We have tiny black ones here. I just ignore them unless they come into the house. Aphids will not actually kill anything - you can wipe them off, or knock them off with a water spray. They are FABULOUS for attracting good buds, and as Jeri says, we even have tiny birds who show up in huge flocks and eat them.

Scale is awful. I seem to recall that there is some sort of anti-scale oil stuff that you are only supposed to spray during the season your plants are DORMANT (whenever that is), not when they are growing.

Many many plants "grow out of" pest problems once they are old enough, and their natural pest defenses kick in, as well as the good bugs showing up to help them. Meanwhile, try to be patient - nature will help your garden, but it does not do that immediately.

And, of course no one is laughing - we have ALL had similar panic attacks about non-perfection in our gardens.

Jackie

We have small ants, sometimes red and sometimes black, and they bite! They raise large welts on me that itch for a whole week and look awful, especially when there are lots of them. The best way I've found to stop the itch is to smear the welts with toothpaste.

I wonder if the scale comes off roses w a q tip and alcohol easily, like it does on cactus and epiphyllums. It wipes right off of them. I dont have scale on my roses but get it on other things once in a while and a cottonball or q tip soaked in alcohol wipes it right off. Of course, there's different kinds of scale...

NEEM oil smothers scale but the scale needs to be removed from the plant. Some scale types keep their eggs underneath them. So even if the scale dies..it sits on the plant covering the eggs and they will hatch out later.

Here's an article about different types of scale.

http://www.mortonarb.org/trees-plants/tree-and-plant-advice/help-pests/scale-insects

HY, like many others, I feel your anguish! You’re just at the later part of the hot season and everything is at its worst around here, at that time. That’s always the time of year that I feel overwhelmed and defeated. I rarely do anything at all about bugs, and somehow the roses and other plants manage to survive. I definitely notice that the ones that are most heat and water stressed, are most susceptible to bug infestations. You’re at that hard time of year. Everything actually looks pretty good, from what I can see. Hang in there! Your doing great and you’ve gotten some great advice here. If you have to do something, start with the least harmful approach. It will all work itself out, before long:) Lisa

Cori Ann, your pictures are great. I love the big group after a meal. What a shot ? Wow

Hmm, I wonder if ladybugs are attracted to a plant to lay eggs under a leave. Like butterflies attract to certain plants so what about ladybugs ? I am just curious.

Jin

Well, you've gotten great advice and I can only echo "hang in there" your garden is worth it. It will get better, probably. But adding also in just a whisper, so as not to scare you, the reason gardening teaches patience is that rarely will there be a year when some kind of pest, disease, torrential rain or hail or drought or hurricane won't visit. Gardeners just seem to carry on anyway. You will too as the gardening disease progresses. It's a grand adventure but not without a price... Your PAOK is lovely!