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.