Planting Time

Weekly update: Rains that started on May 13continued through this past Wednesday.  Last week I finally was able to put in seeds.  It took longer than it should because, instead of preparing the beds, I have spent most of the spring removing Russian thistles.

By Wednesday, May 17, two days had passed without rain and the ground had dried just enough it longer was easy to pull the Queen Anne’s lace.  The plant is in the carrot family and usually has a long, slender, rubbery root.  Some had grown so large the roots had become more than an inch thick, and others had subdivided.

When the rains returned on Thursday, it was easy again to pull or chisel out unwanted volunteers.  It also has been easier than usual to pull out Siberian elm seedlings and goat’s beards.

Last Sunday, I removed the last of the Russian thistles that were gathered by the gate.  I still have them in the apricot tree, and around the salt bushes in back.  With the ones on the Drive gone, I thought I’d have fewer blow back into areas that I already had cleared.

This week I was able to resume my usual schedule of a half hour spent on each of three projects.  I began weeding the main bed where cheat and brome grasses were taking over.  Then, I worked on setting a post to stop water from flowing from my uphill neighbor.  Even where they were laying somewhat haphazardly, they seem to have stopped some movement of water and soil.

Thursday, I finally was able to spray for aphids and grasshoppers.  The rain had brought a swarm of mosquitoes, while brown-and-black moths were getting into the house.  The spray seems to have helped them, but today I noticed small beetles covering the wall of my garage.

Spraying meant I couldn’t sit on the ground and pull weeds as I had started.  I spent the past few days using the weed eater to cut grasses in the drive that I didn’t want to go to seed.

I also began removing the Russian thistles from the back that still were there from April 19.  Progress was aborted by a brief gust of wind yesterday.  I looked up and saw carcasses flying over my neighbor’s south fence.  When I investigated, they also had flown into bushes and plants everywhere.  After two hours I have removed 313 from inside my fences, and another 87 from my drive outside the gate.  The year’s total inside is 11,241.

This time, the removal has been harder.  I pick things up and when I walk back I see more.  There’s not much wind.  I don’t know if I’m not seeing them or if the reservoir of available carcasses has grown so large it sends more into my yard with the slightest breeze.

The mass had been beyond the arroyo, at least a quarter mile away, but with each wind, more have accumulated against my wooden and my neighbor’s barbed wire fences.  Each time I take them to the road they are poised to return if the wind shifts.

The worst is that while I was spending my tine removing carcasses, the roots of the pigweed got so long they no longer will pull out.  Most, but not all, of the Russian thistles still will slide away.

Weather: The rains stopped and no moisture is crossing the area.  The clouds are from dry air pulling moisture from the rivers and ground, while afternoon temperatures are still in the low 80s.

Last rain: 5/24/23.  Week’s low: 43 degrees F.  Week’s high: 86 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 39 mph in Santa Fé on Friday.

What’s blooming in the area: Austrian Copper, Persian Yellow, Dr. Huey, hybrid, and wild pink roses; yellow potentilla, spirea, pyracantha, snowballs, silver lace vine, bearded iris, broad leaved yuccas, peonies, oriental poppy, purple salvia, snow-in-summer, golden spur columbine, Jupiter’s beard, Shasta daisies

Last week: Austrian Copper, Persian Yellow and Dr. Huey roses, spirea, snowballs, bearded iris, broad leaved yucca, purple salvia, snow-in-summer, golden spur columbine, Jupiter’s beard, blue flax

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Apache plume, four-wing salt bushes, native yucca, winecup mallow, tumble mustard, alfalfa, fern leaf globe mallows, bindweed, nits-and-lice, white tufted evening primroses, scarlet bee blossom, alfilerillo, purple mat, western stickseeds, bractless cryptantha, fleabanes, strap leaf aster, goat’s beards, dandelions; needle, feather, rice, brome, cheat, three-awn, and June grasses

Last week: Apache plumes, tumble mustard, hoary cress, fern leaf globe mallows, bindweed, nits-and-lice, white tufted evening primroses, alfilerillo, purple mat, western stickseeds, bractless cryptantha, fleabanes, goat’s beards, dandelions; needle, rice, cheat, three-awn, and June grasses

What’s emerging: Daturas, bush morning glories

Last week: lamb’s quarter, ragweed

What’s blooming in my yard: Woodsi, rugosa, and miniature roses; cliff rose, Russian olive, beauty bush, red grapes, chives, cultivated daylily, Dutch clover, baptisia, sweet alyssum from seed, Six Hills Giant catmint, coral bells, vinca, pink evening primroses, blue flax, Johnson blue geraniums, chocolate flowers, white yarrow, buffalo grass

Last week: Woodsi rose, Cliff rose, yellow potentillas, beauty bush, red grapes, tulips, chinodoxia, chives, cultivated daylily, Dutch clover, coral bells, vinca, pink evening primrose, chocolate flower, white yarrow; one crab apple is forming fruit for the first time; Austrian copper and Woodsi roses were fragrant in the moist air

What’s emerging: Dutch clover and zinnias from seed

Last week: Chinese wisteria, tomatillos; California poppies and larkspur from seed

Bedding and inside plants: Pansies, aptenia

Animal sightings: Western chickadees, geckoes, ladybugs, swallowtail and cabbage butterflies, hawkmoth, brown-and-black moths in the house, bumble bees, hornets, mosquitoes, sidewalk and harvester ants

Last week: Three rabbits together, western chickadees, geckoes, lady bugs, cabbage butterflies, bumble bees, hornets, mosquitoes, sidewalk and harvester ants; many of the goat’s beards are dirty, suggesting ant and aphid activity.

Notes on photographs: All taken in my driveway on 20 May 2023.
1.  Stickseed flower (Lappula redowskii).  It’s in the Borage family and has had a normal year.

2.  Cryptantha Bractless flower (Cryptantha crassisepals).  It’s also in the Borage family.

3.  Cryptantha Bractless plant.  It’s having a good year, and some plants have grown so large they could sprawl.  Often they only are 3" tall.

Wind and Rain

Weekly update: Nature hasn’t read the script.  An old spiritual proclaimed “no more water, it’s the fire next time.”  We had the fires last spring.  Last summer we had a storm that flooded my retaining wall.  Saturday, it rained hard for more than an hour.

In Oklahoma the cast observes the “wind comes right behind the rain.”  On Wednesday, we had the fourth 50-mile-an-hour wind storm.  Most of the restored fence held up.  However, the weakest joint failed.

When I saw the top of the fence was several inches away from the post, I stood in front of it to hold it in place.  The fence section banged against my back for an hour.  As I leaned there, I watched Russian thistles blow up from my uphill neighbor’s side and land in the spirea and apricot.  Some hit me on their way down to the driveway.  When the wind shifted from the south, they blew down to the gate.

Around 6 pm, the wind shifted, and Russian thistles blew into my back yard from the prairie to the southwest.

Those roses of Sharon, which I received last Friday, still sat on the back porch.  The weather bureau opined there might be more wind before the rains came on Saturday.  I spent Friday removing the carcasses from the gardens and backyard.  When I was done, I was back to where I had been the beginning of the week before I started clearing the last section of the back.

Saturday, I spent two and a half hours removing them from the gate, so I could get my car hour to take trash to the road on Sunday.  I got about a third removed.  The wind was blowing from a southerly direction, and took them up the road.

The rain started about 5:56 pm on Saturday with some thunder, then started and stopped.  It began in earnest around 6:20 pm.  By then, the channel I had dug after last summer’s storm was filled and the adjoining land was flooded.  The scalloped cement edging I had placed to divert the flow from my uphill neighbor’s yard held.  My downhill neighbor scrapes his yard bare.  It was flooded in many places.

The storm was intensifying around 6:39 pm.  The cement edging tipped over by 6:45.  My driveway was flooded.  Water poured off the back roof and collected in a brick lined bed.  Then, it flowed on both sides of the beauty bush into the dirt path that I had worn from my many trips taking Russian thistles to the road.

It went downhill from there to join the water flowing along a similar path along the wire fence that paralleled the Ranch Road.  It turned south to head for the eroded fence corner that I had spent the winter repairing.

Most of the repairs survived.  I had built up the space between the ground and fence bottom, then placed stones to hold the dirt in place.  Later, I planted some grass seed that I covered with sand.  The sand I didn’t sink like I hoped, but splattered the boards.  A few places washed out, but only for a few inches.  At the corner, a gap of less than an inch existed between the boards and stones.  It had widened a little, but not much.

From there the water turned toward the Ranch Road, where it joined the water flowing from my downhill neighbor’s yard.  The boundary between the bank and the road was erased.  A similar thing happened with the channel I had dug by my house.

When I went out Sunday, I saw a few things had to be done.  Not as much as last summer, but a few to reinforce work that hadn’t been sufficient.  I needed to re-dig the channel, and put down some larger stones in the openings in back.

I looked more closely at the scalloped edging that fell.  When I looked at the photograph below, I realized it had always been a problem area.  I had placed the Saltillo tile against the retaining wall more than a decade ago when water was going through the retaining wall.  It continues to work.

Last winter I found a low place on my neighbor’s side which I attributed to some actions in the 1990s.  The utility pole was placed after that.  I didn’t realize the role it played.

When I laid the walk, the cement blocks were level.  Over time, water from the uphill side has eroded the dirt on the far side of the blocks and tilted them.

Since the flood of last summer, I first filled the low place on my neighbor’s side and placed some his old 4x4’s parallel to the fence.  This spring, I have been laying wooden posts along my side of the fence, and added the faux-brick edging on the other side of the walk.  You can see the edging failed at the utility pole.  I have not completely solved the problem, but I now have more information on its cause.

Later on Sunday, after the damage inspection, I planted the roses of Sharon.

Weather: For whatever reason, this is the week that plastic hoses, which had had problems since late last summer, went from being acceptable to having to be replaced.  I’ve never figured out what temperature conditions cause these changes, just do what has to be done.

Last rain: 5/13/23.  Week’s low: 31 degrees F.  Week’s high: 84 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 54 mph in Santa Fé on Wednesday.

What’s blooming in the area: Austrian copper and Persian yellow roses, spirea, lilacs, purple flowered and black locusts, bearded iris, purple salvia, golden spur columbine, blue flax

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Apache plumes, tansy and tumble mustards, hoary cress, fern leaf globe mallow, bindweed, white tufted evening primroses, alfilerillo, purple mat, western stickseeds, bractless cryptantha, fleabane, dandelions, goat’s beards, needle, rice, cheat, and June grasses

What’s emerging: Trees of heaven, Illinois bundle flower

What’s blooming in my yard: Woodsi rose, tulips, lily of the valley, Dutch clover, coral bells, vinca, pink evening primrose

What’s emerging: Desert willow, Saint John’s wort, perennial four o’clock

Animal sightings: Western chickadees, geckoes, cabbage and swallowtail butterflies, hornets, sidewalk and harvester ants; hear crickets

Notes on photographs:
1.  Rosa woodsii, 13 May 2023; taken before the deluge.  The flowers last a day, so it was not bothered by the hard rain later that day.

2.  Russian thistles (Salsola tragus) at my driveway date, 11 May 2023, after the strong winds on Wednesday.

3.  Same area on 14 May 2023, after the rain storm and two-and-a-half hours taking some thistles to the outside road.

4.  Paths of water coming from my back porch on 14 May 2023 after the hard rain.  It fell in the bricked area, flowed over in the area washed smooth, and from there of both sides of the light colored beauty bush trunk (Kolkwitzia amabilis).  The lilac (Syringa vulgaris) to the right helped channel the water.

5.  The water then moved through paths made bare by the drought.  It moved around clumps of June grass (Koeleria cristata).  The darker colors are good soil that has been dislodged.

6.  Back fence, with brick used to terrace the slope.  This is one place water broke through the dyke I had made.

7.  The block walk that parallels ym fence with my uphill neighbor.  On one side are wooden posts, and on the other the colored-concrete edging.  A Saltillo tile is against the retaining wall.  The walk begins tilting at the utility pole.

Weather Trumps All

Weekly update: Weather rules.  At times I feel like the nineteenth-century farmers, described by Hamlin Garland, who were beholden to the elements and New York financiers. [1]  Every morning I check the weather bureau website for forecasts of wind and rain.  Whatever I thought I might do later in the morning gets changed.  Then, of course, whatever was forecast doesn’t happen or, worse, happens selectively.

The afternoon high temperature jumped from 74 on Saturday to 84 on Sunday.  We’ve have too many years when that abrupt change was permanent, and it no longer was possible to transplant.  I had purchased some pansies and snapdragons on April 6, which is about the right time to move them outdoors.  Only, of course, morning temperatures in April often were below freezing.

They stayed in the shade of my back porch, spending some days in the house, and others outside.  They came into bloom, and grew better roots.  But, they are cold weather plants, and go into remission in summer.

Monday I planted them.  That was the day the afternoon temperature reached 87.  Fortunately, both went into shaded places.  They survived, but went out of bloom.  The pansies may come back in a few days, but the snapdragons probably will wait a while to produce new blooming stems.

That day, Monday, was the first of May.  Years ago, local garden centers received shrubs in mid- to late-April.  The big boxes changed the cycle.  They catered to people who bought when the weather was mild and things already were blooming, rather than to experienced gardeners who planted by the season.  The selling season shrank to May 1 to Mother’s Day.

I wanted some pink roses of Sharon.  I decided to go into Santa Fé to a store that had had them in the past.  I was shocked by what I saw.  The store had about a third of its usual inventory.  It probably was a combination of factors.  They may have postponed receiving shipments because of the cold morning temperatures.

They also may have had trouble getting the necessary spring financing.  Ever since our local banks were absorbed into regional and national ones after the shock of 2008, it has been obvious small businesses are not getting the resources they need.

I went to another store, which a friend had mentioned.  It had a reasonable number of shrubs, but all the roses of Sharon were white varieties: Diana, Helene, Red Heart.  They were kept outdoors, but in a sheltered area.

I came home, and did the unthinkable for May.  Looked for pink roses of Sharon on-line.  I found only one source, and they were backordered.  That led me to suspect there was one source for Lady Stanley, and it was having problems of its own.  Banks probably became more unreliable after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in early March.  Many nurseries are on the west coast.

By Tuesday morning, I had enough of the Russian thistles removed that I could plant grass seed in bare areas I had discovered over the winter when I was ferreting out long buried pieces of concrete.  The weather bureau was suggesting a 40% chance of rain that day in Los Alamos, and 60% in Santa Fé.  I ran a sprinkler to the area, and bravely scattered seed.

It was just as well.  We got clouds and winds, but no moisture.

On Tuesday afternoon, I went into town for the weekly stops at the grocery store and post office.  On the way back I went into the local garden center.  It had cut back its inventory years ago, when the big boxes took away many of its casual customers.  It narrowed its offerings to fruit trees, vegetables, and a few flowers supplied by local farmers.

It kept its stock in an enclosed shed, but had gotten nothing new since the fruit trees.  The bare roots roses had suffered and were on sale for five dollars.  By coincidence that morning I had rued cheap roses no longer were available. Once, one local store sold then for five dollars; now the cheapest anywhere were in the twenties.  I was considering using some as a barrier in the retaining wall I had built outside my gate.  It was unlikely any would survive that location, but I was willing to risk a small amount of money to try.  I bought three that had sprouted.

There had been a break in the winds, so I put them out on Wednesday morning.  Of course, the winds started again that day, reaching 41 mph in Santa Fé.  The leaves wilted, and have yet to recover.

I also planted some seeds that day in the planter.  The soil was now warm enough for them to germinate.  A few reseeds already had come up in the area.

I couldn’t continue putting in seeds, because I needed to plant those shrubs I ordered first.  I turned to restoring the area disturbed by the fence menders.  When they dug out dirt for the replacement section, they dumped it all on my side, even though most of it had come from my neighbor’s side.  They buried the few iris that already had been stepped on.

I spent parts of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday laying wooden posts on the ground to divert or slow the waters that washed down from my uphill neighbor.  By yesterday, I had reached the area with the new fence section.

There was so much new dirt that the slope had become extreme.  I had to use some pavers to create three terraces.  When the areas were somewhat level, I was able to replant the iris that I had rescued on Sunday.  They were reduced to bare rhizomes.  They never had done well, because they never got much water.  I also moved a soaker hose to their area.

I had ordered the roses of Sharon on Monday with no expectation they would arrive until June.  Tuesday, the company shipped them, and they were here on Friday.  They were bare roots, about 3' high, and fully leafed.  The nursery is located in Georgia.

I can’t plant them.  We have high winds forecast again for Wednesday into Thursday in Santa Fé.  Then maybe, just maybe, we’ll get some rain.  No guess yet on the temperatures.

Weather: The ditches were running more than the usual one day a week.  The snow pack above Santa Cruz lake has been melting faster than usual, and the lake overflowed on April 14. [2]  The local ditches probably are taking as much runoff as they can.

Last rain: 4/28/23.  Week’s low: 32 degrees F.  Week’s high: 87 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 41 mph in Santa Fé on Tuesday.

What’s blooming in the area: Lilacs, forsythia, bearded iris, lavender moss phlox

The apples only were in bloom for a few days.  Instead of frost, the winds blew away the petals.  I don’t know how many were fertilized because bees tend to stay in their hives when it’s windy.

The lilacs are having a normal year, that is normal for lilacs elsewhere.  They are blooming.  They prefer cool weather, and so it is best to plant the early flowering varieties, if one has any choice.  Garden centers get what’s available from nurseries with more customers in others parts of the country.  As seen in the photographs, mine have matured into genuine shrubs in the years when their flowers were scotched.  The tallest is the common lilac; the others are whatever cultivars were available in 1997.

What’s emerging: Ash trees, buddleia, Virginia creeper, silver lace vine

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Tansy mustard peaked, white tufted evening primroses, alfilerillo, purple mat, western stickseed peaked, bractless cryptantha, dandelions, cheat grass; Siberian elms are releasing their seeds

The white tufted evening primroses are having a good year.  I see them reflecting light when I look out across my neighbor’s yard in the morning.  The last time I remember seeing so many was 1999.  Perhaps it was the wet winter that mattered.  Mine, and the ones I remember from way back when, were growing in soil that had been disturbed.  The remembered ones were on land grazed by cattle.  Mine are growing where the ground squirrel destroyed much of the vegetation in its quest to decimate the cholla cactus.

Dandelions colonized some soil I used to fill a low area created by flooding.  When I dug them out to plant better seeds, I discovered that many were collections of several plants.  That explained one mystery.  I couldn’t understand how I could pick so many flowers and buds from a dandelion one day, and have even more the next day.  Prolific as they are, a single plant simply could not produce what I was removing.

What’s emerging: Cottonwoods, catalpas

What’s blooming in my yard: Choke cherries, spirea, flowering quince, Siberian peas, tulips, grape hyacinths, blue flax, vinca, pink evening primrose

Before they went out of bloom this week, flowers on the sour cherries were bending down in the pairs typical of the fruit.  Apparently, their ovaries were getting heavy.

What’s emerging: Russian sage, roses of Sharon, caryopteris, leadwort, purple coneflower

Animal sightings: Rabbit, western chickadees, geckoes, swallowtail and cabbage butterflies, small and bumble bees around Siberian peas, hornets, sidewalk and harvester ants

Notes on photographs: All taken today, 7 May 2023

1.  Tufted white evening primroses (Oenothera caespitosa) growing in a clump on land ravaged by the ground squirrel.

2.  Lilacs (Syringa vulgaris).  The common one at the right is taller than the porch roof.  The flowers are just visible from a distance.

3.  Common lilac flower.

End notes:
1.  In college, I read Hamlin Garland’s “Under the Lion’s Paw.”  Harper’s Weekly, 7 September 1889.  Reprinted in Main-Travelled Roads.  Boston: Arena, 1891.  I am writing from the impressions then, which may have little to do with the actual story.

2.  Kevin Deutsch.  “City Declares Emergency over Rio Santa Cruz Flooding.”  Rio Grande Sun, Española, New Mexico, 26 April 2023.

Nature Abhors a Fence

Weekly update: Nothing ages well in the sun and winds of northern New Mexico.  Photographs of wizened faces of natives and farmers are common from the early twentieth century.  The elements treat wood no better.

My southwest-northeast fence was built in two in two sections.  Around 1992, my neighbor erected the first one section by cutting notches in 4'x4' treated posts to hold horizontal rails.  He attached 4" wide, dog-eared pine pickets to it.

In 2001, Carlos Archuleta extended the fence to the south and north boundaries of my property.  He embedded steel posts in concrete, and attached galvanized brackets to hold the horizontal boards.  He used 6" wide pickets.

My neighbor’s mistake was using bare, steel nails.  The iron interacted with the wood’s chemicals.  Within a year, holes developed around them.  When the winds blew, the boards rattled and bowed.  Each year I’d get my neighbor to put some deck screws in the ones that no longer were attached at the top.

When the winds hit the metal-post section, the horizontal rails vibrated, and eventually worked their anchoring screws loose.  My neighbor had a heart attack, and no longer could work on the fence.  I began using plastic-covered, copper wire to tie the fence together.

Then we had the big wind last year that brought the tumbleweeds.  It also blew one section of my fence loose from the four brackets.  In the fall, I started calling local landscape companies, and got the usual responses: no call backs or bids that were outrageous.

Things hobbled along until April 19, when the section came down, and I couldn’t keep it up.

Monday, I started making phone calls again.  This time I looked online for companies that did fence repair.  Some were organized enterprises with 60- to 90-day backlogs.  Others were small operations, often with phone numbers that no longer were active.

I got lucky.  One small company sent someone out on Tuesday to give me an estimate of $2,000 to do everything.  I gulped, but remembered it had cost $3,106 to build the fence in 2001.  A 4" board had cost $1.49 in 2013.  Today, a 6" picket cost $5.72.   It would cost at least $3,200 to replace all the boards, and men seem to expect $1,000 a day for labor.  I was going to pay the standard labor rate and about $300 for drywall screws and replacement boards.

These men were willing to rescrew every board and bracket.  It’s actually more difficult to repair something than to replace it.  They not only had to install two new screws at the top, and two at the bottom, but they also had to hammer in exposed nails.

They started on Wednesday, and were finished on Thursday.  In the process, it became obvious more than wind had been a factor.

The wind had been depositing dirt at the base of the fence for years.  You can see the difference in the following picture.  My neighbor replaced a board by placing it on the surface.  It is several inches higher than the surrounding ones.

Apparently, during the winter, when the ground froze, the extra dirt began pushing upward.  In the above photo of the bracket and wire, you can see that the rail has been moved at least half an inch, and been thrust in front of another picket.

These men removed the one board, removed dirt at the base, and were able to reinstall the rail into the bracket.  They used two to three screws where Carlos had used one.

Below ground, the boards were slowly rotting.

They had to dig out an opening wherever they had to replace a board.  Finally, one of the men took a shovel and dug dirt away from the fence from the downed section south.  You can see the trench in front of the section they needed to replace.

When I said I got lucky, I wasn’t just referring to the price or their willingness to start immediately.  The older man was able to recognize root causes and fix them, although that wasn’t specified in the estimate.  That’s the mark of a master craftsman.  There are very few with both the experience and the willingness to continue working hard after they’ve reached middle age.

Weather: When I woke Friday morning, gray clouds were everywhere and an Alberta clipper was expected to send some rain our way from the northwest.  It would have been the first in more than a month.

I needed to plant some native grass seed along south fence where I have been working to stop erosion around the anchoring end post.  The low areas had been filled, and stones dumped along the top.  All I needed to finish was some rain, since the area is beyond the reach of a hose.

So, I went out as the winds started, and began scattering seeds on the stones, and covering them with sand.  By the time I had finished, the rain had started.  Now, all I can do is hope some will germinate.

Last rain: 4/28/23.  Week’s low: 27 degrees F.  Week’s high: 74 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 45 mph in Santa Fé on Friday.

What’s blooming in the area: Apples, sweet cherries, purple leaf sand cherry, flowering quince, other pink and white flowered trees, forsythia, daffodils, lavender moss phlox

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Purple and tansy mustards, fern leaf globemallows, white tufted evening primroses, alfilerillo, purple mat, western stickseed, bractless cryptantha, dandelions, cheat grass, moss

What’s emerging: Stickleaf

What’s blooming in my yard: Flowering and fruiting crab apples, sour cherry, sandcherry, Siberian peas, lilac, tulips, grape hyacinth, stars of Bethlehem, blue flax, vinca

What’s emerging: Grape vine, Pallida iris, lilies of the valley, Mönch asters, chocolate flowers, Ozark coneflower

Animal sightings: Humming bird, western chickadees, geckoes, small bees around Siberian peas, hornets, sidewalk and harvester ants

Notes on photographs:
1.  Flowering quince (Chaenomeles rubra) with leaves of white yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and garlic chives (Allium tuberosum), 29 April 2023.  

2.  Wooden-post fence, 26 June 2013.  Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) got started behind the fence on my neighbor’s side.

3.  Metal-post fence, 26 June 2013,
4.  Nail hole in wooden-post fence, 26 June 2013.
5.  Loose bracket in metal-post fence, 27 April 2023.
6.  Metal-post fence repair, 29 April 2023.
7.  Repaired bracket in metal-post fence, 27 April 2023.
8.  Rotting pickets in metal-post fence, 23 April 2023.
9.  New section in metal-post fence, 27 April 2023.

Russia Thistles Again

Weekly update: Another major wind storm on Wednesday dumped more tumbleweeds in places I had just cleared from the storm of April 4.  This time, more Russian thistles were caught in shrubs and along the east or southeast side of the property.  One time when I looked out, I saw dust and thistles rolling through my southwest neighbor’s yard.  The winds shifted, and the thistles hopped the fence and headed toward me.

Later, winds came from the northeast and blew the ones I hadn’t removed into new places.  There were times when I could only remove the ones behind the house because the winds were blowing toward me.  Any I removed toward the northeast front side of my land would have blown back into the driveway.

Each storm is worse, because the thistles get moved, stopped, and then moved again.  I counted 1,840 from the February wind, and 3,286 from the early April one.  My total of thistles removed so far this year is 7,186, and I haven’t started clearing the fences.  It’s later in the season and my first priority has been keeping the beds clear that I water.

The air has been dryer than earlier, and the carcasses are more likely to drop small pieces that will produce seedlings when the parents have been removed.  Seeds already are sprouting in the dry sand along the fence across from that neighbor.

I think the increasing fragility of the tumbleweeds has created another problem.  When I go out, I wear a heavy sweatshirt, thick sweatpants, and rubber boots.  I add rubble gloves for the stickers and a paper mask to keep dust out of my lungs.  My glasses usually keep it out of my eyes.

However, the past few days the areas around my eyes have been itching, and nothing seems to have helped.  Washing the area with water or alcohol did nothing.  Various salves didn’t help.

Russian thistles contain noxious chemicals related to sodium carbonates.  I’m thinking these have been released into the air when the carcasses break up, and land on my skin.  The wind imprints them into the surface of the skin.

This isn’t a single weather event that makes the news.  Southern tornadoes, which follow our high wind periods, rightly get more attention.

However, peoples’ reactions to their own situations are more important than the number of disasters recorded by the weather bureau.  In a recent poll, 79% said they had personally been affected by what is euphemistically called extreme weather in the past five years.  55% cited hot weather, 45% cold weather and bad storms, and 30% drought and water shortages.  The headline catching hurricanes and fires were down the list.

This problem with Russian thistles began with recent droughts that suppressed native vegetation that let invaders like the member of the Chenopodium family get started.  Over a few seasons, individuals cut them down, and let them blow where they seeded new areas.

Last year we had one serious wind storm, and another smaller one later.  They planted more seeds, and this year we not only have had more wind storms, but more plants have been available to blow around.  Most get stopped by barriers, but it takes one a few gusts to lift them free and over fences.

There are things that are more important tasks in the spring than removing tumbleweed carcasses, but a definition of a crisis is something that forces one to stop doing what is critical to deal with something worse.

Before the storm, I was able to spend a little time siting some of the 3"x3" post I’m laying in front of my east fence to prevent flooding.  I even had time to tie some of the loose boards in the fence.

Yesterday morning I had all the beds cleared, and was able to spend a little time planting the bare-root trees that arrived in the mail the day before the storm.  They spent the week in my bathtub, with water dumped into their plastic bag.  

In the afternoon, a wind blew down one section of the fence, and all I could do was get it to lay flat in my east neighbor’s yard so it wouldn’t destroy the plants in front of it.  This morning, instead of working on the posts or removing tumbleweeds from my backyard, I struggled to get the fence section propped back in place.

I know from the past few weeks how many hours I will have to spend removing the remaining tumbleweeds, but I may be able to pace myself until it becomes clear real rain may arrive and encourage some of the seeds.

But I know that part of every day this year will be spent dealing with acts of God abetted by my neighbors near and far: picking dandelion flowers, watching for Siberian elm seedlings, and dealing with Russian thistles.

Weather: The first fire weather watch of the season was on Wednesday, before hurricane season officially opens.  These have replace spring with its tornado season.

Last token snow: 3/21/23.  Week’s low: 28 degrees F.  Week’s high: 78 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 47 mph in Los Alamos and 51 mph in Santa Fé at the time I was watching tumbleweeds roll in my neighbor’s yard on Wednesday.

What’s blooming in the area: Bradford and fruiting pears, sweet cherries, purple leaf plums, flowering quince, Siberian elms, forsythia, red tulips, daffodils, moss phlox, donkey tail spurge

What’s emerging: Apples leafing; purple salvia and pampas grass emerging

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Purple and tansy mustards, white tufted evening primroses, alfilerillo, western stickseed, bractless cryptantha, dandelions

What’s emerging: Sandbar willow, fern leaf and leather leaf globe mallows, Russian thistles

What’s blooming in my yard: Sour cherry, sandcherry, purple leaf sand cherry, stars of Bethlehem, vinca

What’s emerging: Peaches, Bradford pear, sweet cherries, cottonwoods, beauty bush, forsythia, and snowball are leafing; Asiatic lilies, Bath pinks, baptisia, sea lavender, wintered over snapdragons, and larkspur from seeds are coming up

Animal sightings: Rabbit, western chickadees, geckoes, cabbage and black swallowtail butterflies, small bees on sandcherry, hornets, sidewalk and harvester ants; hear quail

Notes on photographs: All taken 23 April 2023
1.  Vinca (Vinca minor)

2.  Tufted white evening primrose blooming on the other side of my fence (Oenothera caespitosa)

3.  Purple leaf sandcherry blossom that has been battered by the wind (Prunus cistena)

End notes:  AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.  “Attitudes Toward Climate Change Continue To Be Divisive.”  Its website, 22 April 2023.

Russia Thistles Redux

 

Weekly update: Gardening is usually an act of creation and pleasure.  However, when the weather turns hostile it can seem more like masochism.

It was the usual pattern with the apricots.  Afternoon temperatures in the high 50’s coaxed them into blooming on March 23, then morning temperatures fell to 18 degrees on March 24.  Each day would tempt a few more, and mornings would kill them.  It was 10 degrees on March 28.

Temperatures got into the 80’s this week.  The peaches are blooming and the sweet cherries are beginning.  Saturday morning the temperature was 24 degrees.

I’ve gotten used to this, even if the fruit trees still follow false signs.  I’ve even grown accustom to no rain.  The last real moisture was March 21, with bits around March 25.  The ground underfoot is dry, reddish sand.

Although other things needed doing, I spent my work time last Saturday and Easter running water for the first time.  Thi always involves replacing hoses that failed and valves that are leaking.

That, in turn, means discovering if anyone is offering decent replacements this year, or, if like last year, everything is worse than before, but at a higher price.

What I have not gotten used to is the wind.  Last year we had two bad winds a few days a part in April that brought Russian thistles into the yard for the first time.  I had removed more than 300  by the end of the month.

The drought had suppressed the grasses, and thistles had taken over.  When the winds were over 50 miles an hour in places like Santa Fé and the carcasses were over the top of the cottonwood and catalpa, they could have come from anywhere.  I spent the rest of the summer removing them, but in the end the ground was cleared of seeds in many places.

We had a strong wind this year on February 22.  There were more than last year, because the ones from last year had dropped seeds that germinated when we finally got some moisture in late summer.  People to the south and southwest probably cut theirs down – the stems don’t break that easily – and left them to blow away.

By March 29, I had removed 1,603, mainly from my back yard.  They weren’t just laying around like last year.  Many had been blown into shrubs and trees.  I used a small rake to snag some.  Again, I had managed the clear the mess, but expected I would be spending part of each day this summer dealing with seedlings.

Then, more strong winds on March 30 and April 4, with gusts every day.  This time some of the winds came from the north, and the carcasses were piled 6' deep against the back fence on grasses that had never seen a thistle.  As of yesterday, I had cleared 3,281 since I had declared partial victory.

That’s 4,884 so far this year, and they still are piled into the salt bushes.  I couldn’t clear the drive yesterday, because the winds were blowing them back.

I don’t keep count for fun.  What else can you do, when you are making 180' round trips from the yard to a location along the western wire fence where it is safe to drop them.  If I go to the nearest point, they cluster against the fence, and I have to go out later and rake them into the ranch road.  If I walk farther north, the angles change enough so that the wind picks them up and send them onto the paved road where they become someone else’s problem.

Many times this week I’ve felt like one of those horses or oxen that used to be harnessed to wooden arms connected to mill stones.  They would plod for hours in a circle.  At least, they were grinding grain.

Weather: The ditch was running in the village on Tuesday.

The heat hasn’t just tricked the fruit trees.  On Thursday, the weather bureau issued a warning that the snow pack in the mountains was melting faster than usual, and threatening to overwhelm streams.

I suppose that escaping moisture explains some of the clouds we have had this week.  There are no clouds bringing moisture from the Pacific.

Last token snow: 3/21/23.  Week’s low: 24 degrees F.  Week’s high: 83 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 46 mph in Los Alamos on Friday.

What’s blooming in the area: Apricots that survived the cold temperatures, peaches, Bradford pears, purple leaf plums, forsythia, daffodils

What’s emerging: Spirea, globe and weeping willows, lilacs

What’s already revived: Roses, arborvitae, bearded iris, daylilies, yellow yarrow

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Purple and tansy mustard, alfilerillo, western stickseed, dandelions

What’s emerging: Russian olives, white sweet clover, strap leaf asters, goat’s beards, ring muhly grass

What’s already revived: Apache plumes, Siberian elms, skunk bushes, four-winged saltbushes, winterfat, alfalfa, bindweed, yellow evening primroses, white pigweed, broom snakeweed, goldenrod, purple and golden hairy asters; needle, June, brome and cheat grasses

What’s blooming in my yard: Sweet cherries, sandcherry, white violets, vinca

What’s emerging: Choke cherries, sour cherry, flowering crab apple, raspberry, Siberian peas, chives, red hot pokers, peonies, smooth and foxglove beard tongues, Johnson’s Blue geranium, catmint, Rumanian sage, Maximilian sunflowers, Silver King artemesia, coreopsis, buffalo grass

What’s already revived: Fruiting crab apples, yellow potentillas, tulips, grape hyacinths, garlic chives, coral beard tongues, golden spur columbine, Maltese crosses, David phlox, bouncing Bess, snow-in-summer, hollyhocks, winecup mallow, sidalcea, Dutch clover, blue flax, pink evening primroses, ladybells, Queen Anne’s lace, Mexican hats, Shasta daisies, chrysanthemums, anthemis, coreopsis, tansy, white yarrow

Animal sightings: Rabbit, western chickadees, gecko, black swallowtail and cabbage butterflies, small bees, sidewalk and harvester ants; heard quail

Notes on photographs:
1.  Elberta peach (Prunus persica) on 13 April 2023.  The tree was planted in 1997, got invaded by aphids and has had dead limbs removed.  It still blooms and still manages to take on a shape like that commemorated by Chinese artists.

2.  Russian thistles (Salsola tragus) blown against the fence and four-winged saltbushes (Atriplex canescens) on 31 March 2023.

3.  Same area on 13 April 2023.  In four hours I had removed 650 tumbleweed carcasses.

Flags

Weekly update: Wind is a fact of life in the Española valley.  But how fast is left to folklore.  We don’t have a weather station, and it’s one climate aspect that can’t be generalized from Santa Fé or Los Alamos.  The one always has higher winds because it gets them coming from the plains.

I once bought an anemometer, but it was worthless.  I should have read the product reviews.  One man tested his by holding it out window on a still day while his wife drove at different speeds.  It didn’t work after about 20 miles per hour.

A flag is better than that.  The rule of thumb is: guess the angle of the flag from the pole, and divide by four.  At 90 degrees, that gets you 22.5 miles per hour.  I’ve gotten so used to winds that high, I’m not interested.  I want to know how high the winds were last spring that brought in the Russian thistle harvest.

When I’m in the house, I’m alerted to some wind by echoes through the roof.  That’s not particularly reliable.  It seems to depend on the direction of the wind.

In the summer, I can look out the window opposite my desk and see the wind is blowing if the leaves in the crab apple tree are moving.  In winter, I’m left with gauging the movements of dried heads of the Maximilian sunflowers.

Winter is also the time when I can use my neighbor’s flags.  He not only installed a 25' pole, but lights it at night.  I can’t see it in the summer through the leaves of the catalpa and the cottonwood, but in the winter it is visible from the kitchen window.  It beats stepping outside at night when air temperatures are below freezing.

I’m sure he did not install his pole to judge the wind.  Any kind of banner hung from his porch would have served as well.  I know his father was in the army, probably Korea.  If he served, it would have been in Vietnam when the draft still was active.

My neighbor is not the only one to dig a hole, fill it with concrete, and erect a pole that cost a minimum of $100 from a Big Box.  I counted five others when I drove into town on Tuesday who flew the United States flag.  Two people were like my neighbor, and added the state flag.

Then there was person with three flags on one pole, and another who had three poles for three flags.

Looking at urban fixtures in yards may seem an odd preoccupation for someone interested in plants.  But, they are no different than the statues Italians place in their formal landscapes.  They are part of what humans do to remake the environment.  Erving Goffman called it The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life in 1956.

I don’t draw any conclusions about politics from the presence of flags.  None of the people who had flags flying put up campaign signs last November.  That includes none who put up Trump signs that I could see.

There’s a strong group of veterans in the area.  The post office still flies the black-and-white Missing-in-Action flag along with the state and federal ones.  There are two memorials: one has three flags on three poles, the other eight on eight poles.

That outdoes the government buildings, although officials seem to think they should fly as many as possible.  I didn’t realize the city and county had their own flags, but that’s the only way the county building, police station, and library could manage three flags.  Our local fire station only has one. There are no Jones to keep up with this far away from town.

While flags are part of our civic life, they do not infiltrate the rest of our public life.  Only one store had a flag hoisted on Tuesday.  One evangelistic church had three poles with one flag each.  But no one else had flags flying on a non-holiday on the main roads that parallel the river.

Setting a flag pole takes skill.  It’s not the sort of thing one can hire done, if only because of problems with getting labor at all.  A couple of people hung flags from poles attached to their houses.  Those brackets aren’t as hard to install.  One other man put a flag on his gate.

My favorite was a man who put a small flag, like the ones children carry on the Fourth of July, on the seat of a rusting piece of farm machinery in his yard.

Weather: Last week small amounts of rain or snow fell for three days.  This week the clouds cleared and temperatures plummeted with nothing to hold in heat at night.

Last token snow: 1/21.  Week’s low: 7 degrees F.  Week’s high: 50 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 44 mph in Santa Fé on Monday.

What’s still green: Needles on pines and junipers; leaves on cliff rose, yuccas, alfilerillo, coral bells, coral beard tongues; bases of blue flax and Mexican hats

What’s still gray or gray-green: Leaf buds on winterfat, leaves on snow-in-summer

What’s turning purple or red: Stems on some roses; sprouts on apricot; twigs on peaches, and spirea

What’s turned yellow: Branches on weeping willows

Notes on photographs: Neighbor’s flags, 24 January 2023