something is bugging me

I could use some help.

And it has nothing to do with my lost wallet. Project Recovery is continuing apace.

I need some gardening advice.

During one of our light rains last February, the mesh on the trellis in front of my bedroom that provides vine-holds for the cup-of-gold broke loose (as welcome as flowers in may). Actually, it was just the ties that held the mesh in place that failed. They are made of plastic and had succumbed to the deadly effect of the sun over the past six years.

I enlisted Omar in helping me. It took a few false starts, but we were eventually able to wrestle the vines into a semblance of order. The weight of the vines made the process a bit more difficult than I had anticipated.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the other three trellises to see if any other maintenance was likely in the near future. The trellises in front of Omar's room and my mother's room were fine. I could not say the same for the trellis in front of Darrel and Christy's room. All of the ties had broken with the exception of two.

Omar and I started to rectify the slump -- until I noticed another problem. The vines were infested with mealybug. And their exudations formed a great base for black mold to grow on the leaves of the flowers that share that planter.

So, I decided to take one action that would sole two problems -- to hack down the vines. That would make re-positioning the mess easier with the added benefit of ridding the vines of the mealybugs.

I was half right. It was easier to fix the mesh. (That is Omar at the top doing just that.) Unfortunately, the major prune did not solve the mealybug problem.

The vines are recovering. But the moment they put out greenery, the mealybugs returned. Worse than the last infestation. It was my own personal second wave of coronavirus.

In Oregon, mealybugs were primarily a house plant problem. Simple to resolve with a few swipes of alcohol and detergent. I have never dealt with them outside.

Based on my limited experience and some advice from the internet, I mixed together a traditional alcohol-detergent-water insecticide and sprayed the vines. It did not seem to do anything. I tried a few days later with the same non-results. The mixture seemed to encourage my prey to spread.

But, I knew where I could find an answer. I am certain there is someone out there amongst my readers who has the perfect solution to stop the rush across the border to my trellis. Oddly, none of the other planters is affected.

Once that problem is fixed, we can start on the list of everything else in my life where I need help.