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.
No comments:
Post a Comment