Mornings, before anything except coffee, I go to the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) weather service site, forecast.weather.gov. Typing in “02575” gives the seven-day weather forecast for the airport in West Tisbury. It gives me dewpoint, wind chill, humidity, barometric pressure, and any wind conditions affecting boats.
I go to the Doppler window. I visit “GOES-East Continental U.S. (CONUS) Images,” and note the ominous, brown aridity of the Western side of the U.S., the greening parts of the Eastern portions, the tornado-spawning fronts forming, and the night-lit conditions of the Eastern flyways. Almost daily, I check New England regional precipitation and temperature visuals. In hurricane season, I visit the hurricane center feature.
Every maritime activity of this water-surrounded island is affected by weather. People say, “Oh, I just get that [this information] from the cellphone’s weather app.” Guess what? All phone weather app info originates with NOAA and the National Weather Service.
Now the unelected youths at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plan to destroy NOAA –– for 0.11% of the federal budget, which provides the most useful, instrumental information of our lives?
Signs
Island spring is so subtle. Hamamelis are reliable harbingers on the Vineyard. Find one to appreciate among the Polly Hill Arboretum collection. Spring teases and delays, until all in a tumble, all at once, an explosion into summer. Be here now.
St. Patrick’s Day approaches. It is a good time, not only for shamrocks and green carnations and parades, but also for remembering the suffering and endurance of the Irish, over many centuries of oppression and struggle for self-governance. Globally, such struggles continue today, and are among reasons the Republic of Ireland stands with Gaza and Ukraine. Erin go bragh!
Exceptionally beautiful
The daytime owl photos that illustrated a recent Wild Side column (bit.ly/MVT_WildSide_Owls) were exceptionally beautiful, as are the awesome birds themselves. Thank you, Gretchen Lally!
Something to think about: When we introduce rat poison into our environment, we assist in the destruction of owls and other predators of the rodent population. These poisons travel up the food chain, eventually sickening victims not originally targeted, including pets, and maybe ourselves.
Northeast dam removals
Across New England and the Northeast, hundreds of small dams have been removed in projects of watershed restoration and fisheries rehabilitation. Southeastern Massachusetts has seen a number of dam removals, and rivers and streams unleashed. However, in almost every instance, debate and difficult choices arise. Read a great deal more at bit.ly/Yale_DamRemovals.
On the one hand, historic and sentimental attachment are strong, and honor these examples of early Americans’ ingenuity and small-scale industry. Sometimes the dams and associated antique mills have become tourist attractions, or the lake formed is a community’s sole facility for swimming or paddling.
On the other hand is present-day acknowledgment that mostly these dams serve no purpose whatsoever, apart from sentimental attachment, and contribute to declining fish stocks and wildlife, and degrading of natural watersheds and habitat.
The Mill Brook study takes a closer look at what is taking place in the Mill Brook and the Mill Pond: bit.ly/MVT_MillBrookStudy.
Insect lives: Why are they important?
Pollinators, ticks, food production, bird life, human health: These elements indicate that there is a great need to know about the life around us. “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough,” in the words of photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. These discerning words reveal universal insight, from the microbiological to the macropolitical.
In this BiodiversityWorks article, read about what happens inside debris, the “messy stuff,” the minute hollow stems and biomass landscapers are asked to clean up or clear away: bit.ly/BDW_PlantStems.These are the naturally occurring “bug hotels” no one needs to order online or construct.
Meanwhile, a colder winter raises the inevitable questions about ticks, and whether tick populations will be affected negatively. In my web search, agreement emerges that the principal factor in tick prevalence is longer and warmer autumns. Well-fed female ticks overwinter successfully. These extended fall seasons give adult females better opportunities to tank up and make a good hatch of eggs the following spring. Meanwhile, overwintering ticks reactivate when daily temperatures rise above about 35°, according to the Adirondack Mountain Club.
Mid-March, we are now on the cusp of that temperature incline. Get out the treated clothing, and be prepared to tick-check every night.
Inside
Citrus have yielded their harvest. Stronger light plus increased growth invite insect activity to ramp up. Control scale insects and their sticky honeydew: Hose potted citrus off in the sink. Pinch sweetpea seedlings once four true leaves show.
In the garden
Milder days mean the window for pruning is closing, as plants ready themselves to enter active growth. Prune roses, peegee and arborescens (i.e., ‘Annabelle’ type) hydrangeas. Prune clematis: Group 2/large-flowered, prune to one or two strong pairs of buds, or about 18 inches; sweet autumn flowering, cut to the ground. (Group 1, such as C. montana, is pruned after flowering.) Trim up private hedging for crisp outlines.
On the other hand, avoid pruning subshrubs that are less hardy. Unpredictable freeze/thaw (“cold shock”) weather could kill them. Leave these unpruned a while longer, to give them maximum time to adapt: mophead hydrangeas, buddleia, caryopteris, potentilla.
The guideline for pruning flowering shrubs: If spring-flowering before June 21, e.g. forsythia, prune immediately after flowering; if bloom time is summer, e.g. abelia, rose of Sharon, prune anytime until June 21.
Common advice concerning hellebores suggests cutting away last year’s foliage in early spring. This is done to remove tattered leaves, to counter the spread of foliar disease, and because foliage may obscure the flowering stems.
Removing may be more appropriate to conditions in British gardens, where many hellebores are bred and grown, and where pathogens may proliferate differently from here. So far I have not done this; mottled and evergreen hellebore foliage is quite the decorative groundcover. This winter, though, the plants are looking more beat-up than usual, so I may trim them.
Sort through dahlia tubers, to decide which and how many to start into growth. I reuse Proven Winners four-inch pots and their trays, holding just one tuber per pot –– this saves potting soil and space. For shelling and sugar snaps, use inoculant, and plant pea seed in modules.
