Weather: Last Sunday evening, the moon was red from an eclipse. The next morning, the sun was red from pollution near the ground. As it rose through layers with less pollution the sun turned orange. By 8:30 am, it was silver through the clouds.
That summarizes the daily cycle this week. During the night, the smoke, dust, and auto exhaust from Los Alamos and Santa Fé fall into the valley. In the morning, there is often a band of white laying along the top of the Jémez.
The Weather Bureau says this haze “burns off.” That is a pleasant way to describe a chemical reaction. The water molecules in the haze turn from liquid to gas when they are warmed by the sun. As they dissipate, the heavier particles are released and drop. My nose registers the process between 7 am and 9 am.
The sky becomes clear, until the temperature rises some more. With increased heat, the winds begin. Then white clouds arise in the areas of the fires in Jemez Springs and north of Mora. Little moisture is actually in the air, other than that released by the planes fighting the fire. Nothing that has crossed the Baja peninsula in the past weeks was come our way. Indeed, on the worst day this week, smoke from fires in México was overhead.
Usually, the clouds begin with actual shapes, but as the day progresses they merge and fill much of the sky, where they stay until the sun goes down. Then the cycle begins again.
Last rain: 4/1. Week’s low: 41 degrees F. Week’s high: 92 degrees F in the shade. Winds were up to 45 mph in Santa Fé on Saturday. Days in May with winds over 25 mph: 21 of 21. Hurricane season officially began last Sunday, 15 May.
What’s blooming in the area: Austrian Copper, Persian Yellow, Dr. Huey, and hybrid roses; pyracantha, spirea, snowball, bearded iris, peonies, oriental poppies, golden spur columbine, snow-in-summer, purple salvia, Mount Atlas daisies
Snowballs are having a very good year everywhere they are being watered. I don’t know if they behave like apples and peach trees. They are in the caper, rather than the rose family. The fruit trees produce potential buds every year that become dormant if they are not encouraged by conditions. Then, when the weather is right, they all bloom, often overloading boughs with the weight of their bounty. This winter’s rain may have been the shrubs’ stimulant.
What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Apache plume, yuccas, scurf peas, alfalfa, green leaf five eyes, bindweed, fern leaf globe mallow, strap leaf aster, fleabane, goat’s beard, common and native dandelions; needle, rice, cheat, three awn, brome, and June grasses
What’s blooming in my yard: Miniature roses, yellow potentillas, cliff rose, beauty bush, privet, chives, daylily cultivar, Johnson Blue geranium, winecup mallow, Dutch clover, coral bells, Maltese cross, Bath pinks, pink evening primroses, catmint, baptisia, blue flax, vinca, Shasta daisies, chocolate flowers, coreopsis, white yarrow
What’s coming up in my yard: Perennial four o’clock seedlings
What bedding plants are blooming: Pansies
Animal sightings: Rabbit, woodpecker on dead wood in cottonwood, quail, western chickadees, hummingbird, geckoes, cabbage and unidentified butterflies, lady bugs, hornets, grasshopper, sidewalk and harvester ants
Tasks: When I went into town Tuesday, I noticed several people had furrowed their fields or yards. It remains to be seen if they intend to plant, or just were clearing the ground in time for the winds to blow away more top soil.
I also noticed another old apricot had been cut down. This was so old, they built the yard wall around it. The house was built in 1969, and the wall was next to a narrow road. It is the only tree I’ve actually seen bear fruit.
The property was listed for sale in 2013, the year I first noticed the tree was suckering. The house was occupied, and the realtor’s photographs from 2015 showed whoever was living there had a garden in back with irrigation rights.
It apparently changed hands, and the new owners (or renters) assumed what was there needed no attention. A large branch broke in 2019, and the apricot was cut down the next year. The chance another branch could come down in the road or on the house was too great.
Trees don’t just die, though. It put up a sprout that bloomed last year, but I didn’t see flowers this year. It may not make another come back in this weather.
Weekly update: I put bedding plants in the ground a week ago, and every afternoon I’ve had to give them emergency doses of water. I know the water is needed, but I also suspect the moisture is important as an air conditioner. It is cold, and so cools both the plants, and the air around them.
Planting seeds has been another matter altogether. It always takes longer than it should because I have to clear the beds first. In one area it was dead grass, and in another dead Dutch clover (Trifolium repens). I realized those stems were keeping the ground moist, and wondered what could replace them before the seeds had a chance to take care of themselves.
I know gardeners’ guides extol the virtues of mulch. The organic ones blow away. For a while, I used sand intended for play yards.
Then, I realized stone worked. The gravel in my driveway, and the cinder blocks in my paths, trapped water and became nurseries for all sorts of unwanted volunteers. I bought some small shale stones for one bed where the plants, like pinks (Dianthus), naturally grow in areas with glacial till.
A couple years ago, I built a long, narrow raised bed outside my gate to stop dirt from drifting down from my neighbor’s yard and blocking my gate in winter. As soon as I built the walls, and they were just laid pavers with no mortar, deliverymen began stepping through it. I realized anything that looked formal, like landscaping stones, would become a mecca for them. So, I dropped pieces of broken tile on the ground, making it look like rubble. That stopped them. They avoided anything that looked dangerous.
The purpose of the bed was to hold dirt, and I needed a better ground cover than the tile shards. I bought some Dutch clover seeds of a variety from New Zealand that was supposed to be more drought resistant. It came up last summer, didn’t bloom, and didn’t survive the winter. I dismissed it as another failed experiment. What was drought resistant for a company in the intermontane west, was not resistant enough for New Mexico.
This week I realized I was wrong; the clover had done exactly what I needed. It had held the ground during the winter.
As I said, the purpose of the bed is utilitarian, not ornamental. It is in the sun, and only gets watered with a garden hose. Beyond some sunflower seeds, I don’t buy anything special for it; I throw in all the remnants of opened packages and seeds left from previous years. This year I added some more of the clover.
Maintaining some moisture in seed beds isn’t the only challenge. When I was putting seeds in one place, ants appeared from nowhere and started crawling over the troweled ground. The only answer is finding the hill and poisoning it. The hill may not be completely eliminated, but it gives the seeds some time to change form before the colony revives.
Rabbits are another problem. They walk down my drive and block walks, avoiding getting their paws dirty. They do straight for my beds. I bought 3' x 6' sections of mesh fencing to lay over beds until the plants, if they germinate, are less palatable.
I laid sections on that raised bed. It wasn’t just to discourage deliverymen and rodents. A large colony of western chickadees lives in my neighbor’s barn. It may not keep them completely out, but at least it will pose a challenge for them.
Notes on photographs:
1. Red sport of golden spur columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha), 15 May 2022.
2. Eastern snowball (Viburnus opulus), 15 May 2022.
3. Apricot tree (Prunus armeniacae) embedded in wall, photograph from real estate listing, 2015; the buildings in back have been obscured. The roots almost reach the road.
4. Fruit on the apricot tree, 2 July 2012.
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