by Bob Groeneveld/Special to the 91原创 Advance

Gardeners love this time of year.

Or at least, I do.

Most of the hard work is done for the year. Mostly there鈥檚 just some weeding and watering. And watering hasn鈥檛 been a big deal this year鈥� yet. That鈥檚 the upside of a relatively humid transition from late spring to early summer.

There is the matter of dead-heading June鈥檚 flowers. But then again, that task is easily accomplished while enjoying your July flowers. And eating some of the early produce.

Last year wasn鈥檛 so sweet.

The usual hard work was done, as expected. But my apple trees were again under attack from a relatively new menace to the Fraser Valley: the apple maggot fly.

My trees were covered with the rotters 鈥� and I do use the term 鈥渞otters鈥� advisedly. Apple maggots鈥� damage is similar to that of the more familiar codling moth. Only exponentially worse.

Remember that silly joke: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 worse than biting into an apple and finding a worm? Finding half a worm!鈥�

That would have been about codling moths. You wouldn鈥檛 bother biting into an apple visited by an apple maggot fly.

After several years of escalating battles resulting in only multiplying numbers of flies, last year I employed a pheromone to trap them 鈥� and just attracted them from all over the neighbourhood.

My trees were prolific, but among the many dozens of apples that grew on them, not a single one was edible. They were so worm-eaten, that I could not even salvage any for juicing.

So this year, I threw down the ultimate gauntlet. When the baby apples were about a centimetre in diameter, I stapled 200 of them inside sandwich bags.

By this time last year, many apples showed signs of maggot fly egg-laying activity. And I was trying to hand-pick the flies off my trees three or four at a time.

Now, with a half to two thirds of my apples happily 鈥� and healthily 鈥� growing in plastic bags, there is no sign of fly damage or of the flies themselves.

It鈥檚 puzzling, because the unbagged apples are clean, too.

If all of the unbagged apples turn out worm-free鈥� do you have any idea how much boring effort is involved in stapling sandwich bags around 200 tiny apples?

I鈥檓 not sure whether I鈥檒l be laughing or crying when I bite into all those perfect apples.