Weather: We have tropical storm Gordon headed for Louisiana and hurricane Olivia moving to the west. I often wonder how storms on both sides of México interact.
Last useful rain: 9/2. Week’s low: 43 degrees F. Week’s high: 89 degrees F in the shade.
What’s blooming in the area: Hybrid roses, yellow potentilla, desert willow, trumpet creeper, bird of paradise, silver lace vine, Russian sage, rose of Sharon, purple phlox, datura, sweet pea, annual four o’clocks, alfalfa, farmer’s sunflowers, coreopsis, black-eyed Susan, chrysanthemums, pampas grass
What’s blooming in my yard: Miniature roses, caryopteris, hosta, garlic chives, golden spur columbine, large-flowered soapwort, David phlox, winecup mallow, hollyhocks, lead plant, pink evening primroses, perennial four o’clock, calamintha, larkspur, chocolate flowers, blanket flowers, Mönch aster, purple and yellow cone flowers, bachelor buttons, zinnias, Maximilian sunflowers
What’s blooming outside the walls and fences: Apache plume, purple mat flower, stick leaf, velvetweed, bindweed, silver leaf nightshade, greenleaf five eyes, scarlet creeper, leather leaf globemallow, white sweet clover, Queen Anne’s lace, goat’s head, prostate knotweed, toothed spurge, purslane, yellow evening primrose, Hopi tea, horseweed, wild lettuce, dandelions, goat’s beard, plain’s paper flower, áñil del muerto, native sunflowers, goldenrod, golden hairy asters, Tahoka daisy, pigweed, Russian thistles, seven-week grama, quack grass,
Bedding plants: Pansies, sweet alyssum; petunias and dwarf African marigolds locally.
Tasks: Most of they hay fields were cut over Labor Day weekend.
The change from summer to fall is marked by the weeds. During the summer heat it was possible to weed an area and see the results a week later. With the rain, all the weeded areas have regrown. The only solace when I removed garlic chives for the third time from one bed is most were new seedlings, and not ones I’d missed earlier.
Animal sightings: Cat, rabbit, hummingbirds, other small brown birds, geckos, bumble bees, hornets, other small flying insects, grasshoppers, harvester and sidewalk ants, earth worms; heard crickets
The ant hills are multiplying as quickly as the weeds. I know the experts say a new queen is required to start a new hill, but I swear they’ve taken lessons from crack houses. I no longer shut down one hill than two new ones appear, one next to the old and another a bit away.
As the summer progresses the hills become less obvious. Instead of piles of sand or gravel, all they do is make holes as invisible as possible, usually between some stones. When that’s not possible, they create an opening under a tahoka daisy or a small stick.
Weekly update: Country song writers lament the attraction of bright lights and city streets that lure their true loves away. As I weed, I’ve decided the appeal transcends humans. The rabbit and the ground squirrel much prefer to walk down my block walks and gravel drive to getting their paws dirty in the grass lands beyond the cultivated beds.
So-called native wild flowers have shown a similar proclivity for my tile drainage areas. The coral beard’s tongues died when I planted them in beds in different locations. Instead, they went to seed in the tiles in front of the house. They were soon joined by the chocolate flowers.
I had said to myself, nothing in the tiles. They gave me an ultimatum: leave them alone or they would leave.
Now the blue flax as taken up residence in the tiles on the west side of the house. It tended to die out in winters and come back from seed. This year the seed just chose a domesticated area, rather than a wild one.
Beyond perversity, there are two reasons they move. The tiles trap moisture in the way rocks do in nature, and so I unwittingly recreated a necessary part of their environment. Second, the chocolate flowers and domestic coreopsis were escaping the more aggressive golden spur columbine in front, while ladybells recently had taken over most of the real estate reserved for the flax.
Notes on photographs: All were taken 3 September 2018.
1. Chocolate flower (Berlandiera lyrata) growing in cracks between tiles that it enlarges.
2. Lanceleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) growing between tiles.
3. Blue flax (Linum perenne) in a crack, with Queen Anne’s lace on the left and ladybells on the right. Only the flax will be left alone.
2 comments:
Nice post. I do love this time of year, especially after so much rain. The pants and wildflowers are working very hard to make up for the earlier lack of rain. Even our foothills of Albuquerque qre the greenest in my memory.
Your the bestt
Post a Comment