A dry summer

Natural air conditioning and revenge of the weeds.

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Catalpa blossoms. - Susan Safford

“The landscape of Martha’s Vineyard — the shape of its coastline, the pattern of its forests, fields, and moorlands, the distribution of its roads, houses, villages, and stone walls — is a product of its past.” Citing the 1850 map of the West Tisbury topographer Henry Whiting, David Foster interprets the Vineyard and anticipates future changes when he gives a Polly Hill Arboretum talk linking the Island’s past, present, and future. It’s at 7:30 tonight, Agricultural Hall, 35 Panhandle Road, West Tisbury.

Drought ahead?

Last Friday and Tuesday’s rains supplied welcome relief, but conditions have been near-drought: July is a famously clear and beautiful month! Practice careful water use and protect your well, if you have one, or even if you are on town water: It is not inexhaustible.

Victorians and shade

Living prior to the invention of modern heating and cooling, Americans in Victorian-era towns and suburbs employed non-mechanical techniques. The front-to-back hallway is a design feature that moves air through the house by Venturi principles, and breezeways and porches situated to catch air movement were important amenities prior to the electrified era and air conditioning.

Everyone my age remembers seeing window awnings on older houses in older neighborhoods — I think of the New Bedford and Taunton areas, and funeral parlors, in particular. Often striped, these were canvas constructions that hooded the upper portion of the window, shading and cooling the air that flowed through, and are still popular on Southern homes. Main Street was lined with shops that featured awnings (not to mention the magnificent vanished elms) to shield interiors from excess sun and heat.

The shade tree was an important asset for cooling and moving air, creating a temperature differential that created a breeze. The trees with the densest shade were planted west or southwest of the house. Certain trees cast denser shade than others, lindens for instance, as do trees with dark-colored foliage such as beech and maple.

One such is the catalpa, Catalpa speciosa, now blooming here and there around the Vineyard. The leaves are oversize hearts that shelter bird, beast, and child alike, and cast a lovely shade on the space below them. Like the awnings mentioned above, I associate catalpas with older neighborhoods, where residents of an earlier era prized them for their shady air conditioning.

Catalpa is a beautiful native North American tree, with two species, C. speciosa and C. bignonioides, the northern and the southern respectively, and much to recommend it to the modern landscape designer for all the same reasons they were planted in the 1890s. Catalpa withstands extremely hot, dry environments, and grows fast. The panicles of showy flowers are lovely, and that is what may draw your eye as you search to find Vineyard catalpas. Growing eventually to a height of up to 60 feet, with an oval outline, the catalpa also may form picturesquely twisting branches (see photo). The wood is rot-resistant.

While whole-house air conditioning and air handling has benefited people enormously in warm seasons and climates, let’s not forget how we can work with natural elements to make our environments more pleasant and habitable.

Weeds

Weeds — sigh! Not so much in vegetable gardens and beds, but in our general Island environment. During a droughty season they grow on (and on) with impunity, while plants we desire must be coddled, and survive only with large amounts of care and attention, not to mention water, from us.

Is there something to this CO2 idea — that the imbalance of carbon dioxide vs. oxygen is encouraging forms of plant life that will take over and release the world from the control of Homo sapiens? When I look at the bittersweet, pokeweed, bramble, honeysuckle, and nightshade in certain places, I just grow weary and think that is so.

Many of the aforementioned are opportunists by description: Disturbed soil is key to their success. (Well, of course; development is the primary factor in disturbed soil.) Think about this when you request fill, or when you grade or level for a project: rampant weeds are the inevitable consequence.

Vigilance and weeding are part of the control strategy, but only go so far, practically speaking. Straw, mulch, or other covering of raw soil may retard germination of weed seed in the soil. In ruderal areas of the Island, nothing can be done, and we all suffer from the spreading infestation of these plants.

In the garden

Applying Bt sprays regularly to brassicas in the vegetable garden works pretty well to curb lepidopteran caterpillar damage on them. Bird damage, however, is impervious to spraying of any sort; green beans and lacinato kale are two vegetables being pecked. Floating row covers seem like the solution. Small nocturnal beetles such as Asiatic and oriental are active at night.

Deadheading and destalking help to keep both annuals and perennials colorful and neat-looking. Deadleafing improves the appearance of hybrid daylilies by removing the yellowing outer leaves of the fans, although bending over is involved.

On the other hand, short-lived perennials, biennials, and self-sowers such as verbena bonariensis, lychnis, foxglove, stachys, and lunaria plant themselves where they want to be. If you like this manner of propagation, hold off on deadheading, and learn to recognize the appearance of the seedlings; edit out only where they are not wanted.

We welcome warm weather aboard, but climbing temperatures point to critical details. Water and mulch all trees and shrubs planted within the past year. They are vulnerable for longer than one might suppose, especially in a dry year. Flies and mites may proliferate in the heat; now is a good time to clean livestock hutches and pens.