The leafy woods surround us with pleasant soughing; the soothing sound contrasts with whistling and moaning of wintry winds in bare trees. And then come these spring windstorms! Many trees with windage of new leaves and unbalanced for power-line clearance suffer grave damage. Our power lines should be underground, just like sewer lines.
Congratulations to VTA! The new, small vehicles seem just right, and are appropriately sized to the scale of Island roads. Let us hope these are sturdy vehicles that serve Island transit needs well.
Recent rains have freed us from the worst of the pollen storm, for the time being at least. There are still grasses, wild cherry, black locust, and more, seeking to send their pollen out on the winds of chance.
Whether rare or becoming more frequent, these downpours, such as May 22nd’s five-plus inches, demonstrate the wisdom of creating planted catchments and swales. More and more of the in-town areas are built upon (roofs) or paved, and this water runs off, and is lost, instead of infiltrating down to replenish the water table.
The big rainstorm, and subsequent smaller ones, are the first real natural watering that plants in my vegetable garden have received since their being set out. They respond entirely differently to water delivered from a hose, getting a charge from the electrical connection made between air, soil, plant, and water.
Speaking of rain, I tend to quip that we can be in the midst of drought, unless the peonies are due to open. The large, sometimes huge, flowers hold lots of water, and may be flattened at the very moment of their beauty pageant.
Stakes and supports for peonies are best placed early on, before buds open. (This is in an ideal world, of course.) As an option, investigate cultivars with single flowers or shorter stems.
Prune spring bloomers
If it blooms before the summer solstice, prune reasonably soon after flowering.
Some spring bloomers may need more pruning than others. Perhaps it is helpful to list a few of them: forsythia, viburnums, kolkwitzia, weigela, lilac species, azaleas/rhododendrons, forsythia, fothergilla, kerria, and mock orange. You might come across a shrub’s structural or corrective pruning when it is inadvisable to do it. Tag the branch and do it at a later time.
I “edited” forsythia in gardens and at home. Here, plants grow from a sprig I brought from my former home, and grow enthusiastically. In one garden, forsythia plants are approaching tree size, undoubtedly responding to fertilizer from nearby lawn.
Lawns
So many households no longer mow their own lawns and depend upon a lawn service that I have stopped offering my opinions on their care. Still, as the homeowner, you can ask what fertilizer and other products are being used on your place. Ask for organic management: best for children, pets, water quality, our environment, and ourselves.
As many ecologically informed lawn and garden authorities have pointed out, home lawns comprise millions of acres that are refuge to many life forms under relentless pressures.
The BBC reports on the recent “bug-splat” survey across the U.K. and Ireland, with very worrying results, at bit.ly/BBC_DisappearingBugs.
Please open the link above and read what the disastrous implications are for us, the humans who require those immaculate, closely cropped lawns. Does your lawn really need close, weekly mowing? Or applications of herbicides or pesticides? Maybe turn off the irrigation and let growth slow down? (Does mowing it even make one safe from — “dun-dun, dun-dun” — ticks?)
Bloomathon continues
Irises, roses, and peonies galore, but trees flower, too. Catalpas deserve an ode: the majestic flowering native shade trees, also known as catawba, lining streets and landscapes in older towns and neighborhoods. Someone else has written it: heartspoken.com/catalpa-tree.
“The large leaves and dense foliage of Catalpa species provide good shelter from rain and wind, making the trees an attractive habitat for many species of birds. They do not present many threats of falling limbs, but the dark-brown fruit husks that they drop in late summer may be a nuisance.” –Wikipedia
Tree lilacs, Syringa reticulata, are about to flower. These, while not native trees, make a good smaller-scale shade tree, with the bonus of white flowers. The bark is dark, brown, shiny, and handsome in winter. The styrax family too is readying for bloom. I particularly cherish the Styrax obassia, which I grew from a very small baby, while the fragrant Styrax japonicus, also bought as a small sapling, will soon be audibly abuzz with bee activity.
Tree care
As we cherish trees we plant, it is important to recognize their needs. One issue that continues to arise is the Look: trees arising from lawn growing right to the very root flare. The stately oak pictured was lost to this aesthetic but empty requirement; and therefore its entire surroundings have suffered a loss.
My plea is to the designers who stipulate this requirement. Please allow for a root-flare safety zone for trees you design into your landscapes. It is downright impossible to mow or string-trim around root flares without damaging trees at their most critical part, where roots join the trunk.
In the garden
Staking, pinching, cultivating: Is there enough time in the day? I would say there is, in this long daylight time of year; and in stressful times, it is almost a requirement. We love Territorial’s Winter Provençal mesclun mix (pictured), with arugula, mache, chervil, assorted lettuces, and more. Planting in rows makes it easier to cultivate efficiently, although free spirits fancy planting in circles or heart designs.
Rows make the best use of space, too. The variety of stand-up hoes, the Dutch hoe, and various push-pull models are helpers that allow the most effective use of scarce time to garden. Curse the sprayers, but mix up your Bt, neem, and other insect control measures.
While we aim to cultivate our own gardens, it is worth cultivating awareness of those whose gardens are ravaged by war, invasion, melting glaciers, and other catastrophes we have so far been spared.
Tick check every night.
Abigail, you ask that electric lines be buried underground. Instead, how about we suggest that everyone, and really, absolutely everyone, put solar panels on their homes (whether on the roof, garage, or back lot) with enough battery capacity to run our home 🏡 or business?
The oil and coal industry is busy making plans at this moment to convert to nuclear instead of solar because they (the oil barons) stand to gain trillions. Let’s save ourselves TRILLIONS of dollars and invest in solar instead.
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