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.
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