As the brown spots turned into a brown patch, I wondered: Had the lawn guy oversprayed fertilizer? Used the wrong thing? Did the wind blow when an exterminator came to spray around the foundation of the house?

There are garden sleuths stationed across the state in the form of agents for Utah State University's Extension Service. I called Loralee Cox, the one closest to me.

It didn't take her long, just a couple of days and a microscope, to discover the problem. The beds are full of spider mites.

Blame the weather, she said.

When the weather is hot and dry, it is easy for the tiny critters to get a hold in the yard and garden.

However, Cox said she sees this problem most often in orchards that have been sprayed with insecticides that kill beneficial spider mites.

Hmmm.

Not anxious to blame the nice man who tries to help us control the creepy, crawly spider population or the hard-working young man who cares for the lawn, I realized the source of the mites doesn't really matter. The solution is the same - a strong blast of hose water and more frequent watering.

Cox also suggested the ground around the samples was mighty dry. Like, really, really dry, she said, which also provided the perfect environment for the bugs to spread rapidly.

We will water a little more, blast the brown beds and hope for better-looking ground cover next year.

I asked Cox whether the infested, mostly dead plants can be cut back to ease the shock of the green-brown pattern in the yard. She said no.

You've got to let that photosynthesis thing happen, she said. Even if it's ugly.

Oh yeah. It's ugly. Really, really ugly.

hgroutage@sltrib.com