Sunday, March 31, 2019

Bags of Stones


Weather: The decent weather of the past few weeks turned rococo this week. First, it got way too warm, up to the high 70s from Tuesday to Thursday. Then, as always happens when the weather’s abnormally warm, cold air began blowing through yesterday. It brought snow to Los Alamos and Santa Fé, but so far all we’ve had here is wind and gray skies. The temperatures in the low 40s apparently haven’t created conditions to force precipitation.

Last useful rain: 3/21. Week’s low: 23 degrees F. Week’s high: 78 degrees F in the shade.

What’s blooming in the area: Apricots, first peaches, pear, purple leaf plum, forsythia

My largest apricot was fragrant on Monday; it’s the first time since it was planted in 2007 that the flowers have lasted long enough to reach that stage. Blossoms on the first trees to bloom in the area began turning brown Thursday, perhaps from the cold morning temperatures, while other trees that waited a week were still white on Friday. Usually, plants begin to bloom near the river first, and gradually work their way up to my yard. The apricots showed no such pattern. I suspect the first trees to bloom, like mine, were grown in some out-of-state nursery, while the later trees were grown from pits of locally acclimated parents.

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Alfilerillo, purple and tansy mustards, dandelions

What’s blooming in my yard: Bradford pear, male cottonwood, violets

What’s reviving/coming up in the area: Siberian elms, leatherleaf globemallow, winterfat, golden hairy aster

What’s reviving/coming up in my yard: Spirea, choke cherry, flowering and fruiting crab apples, snowball, privet, lilacs, Siberian peas, blue flax, Mexican hats

Tasks: Saw a man out with a rototiller on Monday.

I spent the week cutting dead stems on Maximilian sunflowers that line a fence, then collapse over the walk in August. I usually do this in mid or late summer, but hadn’t done anything since I hurt my thumb in 2016. It always takes time because the stems have to be cut: if they’re broken off the dead wood brings the roots with it. I used to do this sitting on the ground with pruners. This time I used loppers to remove the long stems, and then sat on the ground and cleared the debris. I could spend less time bending over the loppers than I could sitting, but the loppers use my hands and arms, while the pruners use my thumb.

Animal sightings: Chickadees, small bees around apricots, small black ant hills appearing


Weekly update: Gravel is the cheap answer to building roads, and because it’s cheap it requires more maintenance than concrete or whatever the black paving material is. The stones gradually sink into the earth from the weight of passing vehicles. I put some rocks down this spring in an area that was still thawing, and half of them disappeared.

Last summer another problem developed. My neighbors killed some winterfat that was blocking the way past their main gate, and the loosened sand blew down on top of the gravel in front of my gate. It raised the level enough that the horizontal post on the gate couldn’t clear. At the time, I raked enough away to solve the problem.

Only, of course, it was a temporary fix. When the ground froze this winter it heaved just enough that the gate wouldn’t clear for months.


One thing you learn is it is far easier to hire someone to do a big job than a small one. If I wanted my drive rebuilt or needed a mason to build a long wall, I would have some problems but probably would eventually have found someone. All I needed was replacement gravel and a short retaining wall. For that, I was on my own.

I bought some pavers because they were the cheapest and lightest weight blocks available, and piled them uphill from the path of my gate. No mortar. It would function, but wouldn’t stand someone trying to use it as a step. Of course, some deliveryman has already tried to use it as a shortcut.

I discovered one of the local big boxes sells bags of rocks from Arizona. I bought the pea gravel to put under the gate, because of the low clearance.

The rocks were dirty. I don’t mean filled with seeds, like the base course from the local quarries, but muddy. Since it was sold by the bag, and not by weight, it didn’t mean the company was inflating its product. But, it did mean that, when it rained, I was going to have mud where I least needed it.

Every few years, some of my neighbors refresh their drives by having truck loads of base course delivered and crews with wide rakes spreading it. Only the gravel’s for sale. You have to supply the labor yourself.

I went back to the big box to buy some of the river rock, but it had been picked over and the only bags left were way back in a space under a shelf. When I asked an employee for some help, he told me he always tells customers to bring their own help because he’s too short staffed.

There are times when I wish my hair were completely gray so I could lay the grandmother’s guilt trip on people. As it was, I was left wondering if I was supposed to grease his hand to get some help.

The river rock, like the pebbles, came with bits of the river. The rocks no doubt were a different variety and color than the local ones, but the dirt was red. If I were creating a zen garden I might have created geometric patterns. However, I was being more utilitarian. I emptied a bag into my wheel barrow and used a small hoe to pull some out where the existing rocks had sunk.

For the time, the worst of my problems are solved. I’ll probably spend the rest of the summer going back to the big box every week or so and buying a few more bags of pebbles to spread in the thin areas that were impassable during the thaw period.


Notes on photographs: All pictures were taken 30 March 2019.
1. The retaining wall built with piled pavers with pea pebbles in front.

2. Pond rock that I placed in a wet area where part of it sank.

3. The gate with the low hanging post. If it didn’t drag, then the wood would have. I gouged a narrow trench under its path and spread pea pebbles under it.

4. The red, muddy river rock mixed with the local base course in the drive.

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Rites of Spring


Weather: Rain Thursday night, with only a few bouts of high winds.

Last useful rain: 3/21. Week’s low: 28 degrees F. Week’s high: 64 degrees F in the shade.

What’s blooming: Apricots, tansy mustard

What’s reviving/coming up in the area: Globe willows, Japanese honeysuckle

What’s reviving/coming up beyond the walls and fences: Shoulders were green before the rain last week, probably tansy mustard and cheat grass; alfalfa, western stickseed, stickleaf, broom snakeweed, goat’s beard, and purple asters are up in my yard.

What’s reviving/coming up in my yard: Roses beginning to leaf, potentillas, tulips, daffodils, daylilies, bouncing Bess, Maltese cross, chrysanthemums, coreopsis, tansy, white yarrow, Shasta daisies

Tasks: It’s ditch cleanup time; one burned the banks of his ditch, another group were in their bank clearing debris yesterday.

Animal sightings: Quail, chickadees, small bees around apricots, small black ants


Weekly update: It’s been a disconcertingly normal winter and spring. While it got colder than usual in December, there was snow on the ground that lingered until temperatures warmed a little in January. The ground was saturated while the snow melted and the lower layers were still frozen, but that problem passed by the time we had more snow and rain. The winds have only been high a few times.

Last week the chickadees returned. One was keeping watch while the others moved into my neighbor’s metal building. It compensated for the lost black locust by perching on the highest branch on one of the remaining Siberian peas.

I heard the sounds of geese a couple weeks ago, then saw the flock back in the yard of near the river. This time a white chicken was with them.

The quail also have returned. One was perched on the utility wire on Thursday.

Plants have been emerging in the same places in the same order as previous years. The globe willows began to show a haze a couple weeks ago, and the color has gotten brighter and more uniform since on area trees. My tree is always slower. The bright chartreuse leaves are still laying prone along the branches.

The plants that invade other beds are all back before their prey: the golden spur columbine, winecup mallow, garlic chives, purple asters, dandelions, alfalfa, and Queen Anne’s lace. They actually appear before the more traditional weeds. Even before I can think about seeds, I’ve been out with a spade and trowel digging out unwanted volunteers.

The first flowers of the year are opening, the tansy mustard and the apricots. Nothing kills the mustard, but as soon as the apricots appear one begins to wonder when the next frost will come, and if the white flowers again will be sacrificed to the weather.

Will the year continue to be normal, or will this be of those rare seasons when the trees bear fruit? At least the bees have returned and are doing their part.


Notes on photographs: All take 3/24/19.
1. Daylilies (Hemerocallis fulva) sprouting from last year’s dead matter.
2. Bearded Dutch iris (Iris germanica) emerging.
3. Apricot (Prunus armeniaca) blooming near a one-seeded juniper (Juniperus Monosperma).

Monday, March 11, 2019

Siberian Pea Tree Autopsy


Weather: Sun angles are changing; the sun was in my eyes when I was sitting at my desk for the first time this year on Monday. The zonal geraniums on the indoor porch are happier than I; they all are in full bloom.

Last useful rain: 3/11. Week’s low: 23 degrees F. Week’s high: 72 degrees F in the shade.

What’s reviving: Hollyhocks, sweet peas, golden spur columbine, chrysanthemums, brome grass; arborvitae have greened; fern bushes have leafed

What’s coming up: Garlic chives, Queen Anne’s lace, oriental poppies, larkspur seedlings, alfalfa, white yarrow

Tasks: Finished the difficult work on the wall I built to stop soil from eroding into the path of my gate, and keeping it from opening when the ground heaves in winter.

Animal sightings: Small birds. When I was digging out soil for the lower course of the wall, I uncovered an active caterpillar and a grub. Heard geese honking near the river on Monday.


Weekly update: High winds returned Wednesday. Friday night they took down one of the Siberian pea trees. When I looked, one of the stems had no roots and one had a few laterals that tore before they broke.

The trees grow like shrubs here. This one was about 8' high and 5' across, with two main stems. I pulled the interlaced branches apart, and loaded the smaller one onto the wheelbarrow to take to the burn pile. The other was larger and heavier. It took some effort to get it to balance diagonally across a dolly.

Then I looked at the roots. There were none on the smaller stem. The larger one had a few laterals that had torn, and a few tiny ones I had to cut. I pushed them back into the hole and covered them, hoping they would resprout.

When I tried to discover what type of roots the species had, I ran into the usual problems that no one looks, and everyone copies Wikipedia without attribution. All the it said was the root system was extensive, but not how wide or how deep. [1]

My first thought was the ground squirrel, but there was no tunnel. Besides that animal seems to feed on members of the rose family, and Caragana arborescens is a legume.

The second possibility was some kind of root rot. The trees are native to Siberia and Manchuria, [2] but researchers did not include Siberia pea trees in their list of Russian trees affected by fungal diseases. [3]


The question remains what happened. The species is used for windbreaks on the northern plains. [4] The high winds of last week and the snow load in February should not have been a problem.

Canadians indicated Caragana arborescens normally lives for fifty years. [5] This tree was planted as a bare root along with two others in 2001. They are about 18-years-old, so it didn’t die of old age.

The Canadians also suggested the pea trees were "very drought tolerant" but would "not tolerate prolonged flooding." [6]

Last summer was hotter than usual. That amplified the effects of the lack of rain. The first of July I noticed this particular shrub was losing leaves.

Last year was also the time I replaced some soaker hoses that, at the best of times, supplied water in 3" strips with sprayer hoses that provided more water over a wider area. When I was fighting with the older hoses, I had snaked one around the base of this particular tree when I looped it back on both sides of the others. That may have caused the roots to be concentrated in a small area. They then may not have been able to respond to the change in water distribution when it got hot.

When I saw the leaves dropping, which is a normal response of the species to drought, [7] I shifted the hose a bit to make sure it got more water. Maybe I was flooding it instead of starving it. The lack of roots is consistent with too much water.

So it may have been victim of the classic conundrum: is it too little or too much, and did compensating for the one cause the other? Killed with loving care, but which kind?


Notes on photographs: Snow picture taken 23 February 2019; the others were taken 9 March 2019.

End notes:
1. Wikipedia. "Caragana arborescens." The tree was discussed in more detail in the post for 4 May 2008.

2. James A. Duke. "Siberian peashrub." Handbook of Energy Crops. 1983. Purdue University Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture website.

3. Evgeny P. Kuz’michev, Ella S. Sokolova, and Elena G. Kulikova. Common Fungal Diseases of Russian Forests. Newtownsquare, Pennsylvania: USDA Forest Service, June 2001.

4. Duke.
5. "Caragana." Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada website.
6. Agriculture Canada.
7. Wikipedia.

Sunday, March 03, 2019

Black Locust


Weather: Rain Saturday evening; drive is still spongy underfoot and wheel barrow is still leaving ruts in saturated soil sitting above frozen ground.

Last useful rain: 3/2. Week’s low: 11 degrees F. Week’s high: 65 degrees F in the shade.

What’s green: Leaves on juniper and other evergreens, Dutch iris, grape hyacinth, vinca, snapdragon, blue flax, winecup mallow, hollyhocks, sweet peas, anthemis, dandelion, needle and cheat grass

What’s gray, gray-green, or blue green: Four-winged saltbush, winterfat, snow-in-summer leaves

What’s red or purple: Stems on sandbar willow and bing cherries; new wood on peaches and apples; leaves on coral bells, alfilerillo, golden spur columbine, coral beards tongue, purple aster

What’s yellow: Stems on weeping willows

Tasks: Spent more time removing soil that slide from a bank into my drive. Each day I removed a little, then let the sun thaw some more for the next day. Many of the rocks I put down in a saturated path sank so only the tops are visible. They’re enough to keep me out of the mud.

Animal sightings: Small birds.


Weekly update: The black locust has been a problem since Megacyllene robiniae larvae first attacked it in 2007. Adult longhorned beetles feed on goldenrod, then lay their eggs in tree trunks. Come spring, the eggs hatch into locust borers that eat the wood. By the time you see a pile of sawdust at the base of the tree, it’s too late. Each year, sometime in June or early July, a trunk has fallen, usually into my drive.

The first man I called to remove a fallen branch said borers weren’t unusual, and the tree wouldn’t die. He added some farmers used to use the regrowth for fence posts.

The first few years I tried to get the fallen branches removed before August when the pupae hatched into beetles. That didn’t help, so I waited until winter to call a tree trimmer. Then I could have him prune other trees while they were dormant.

When I first had the problem, I removed my goldenrod plants. Since the insects came back, I decided there was no reason to forego the yellow flowers.

In July of 2012, the man I called told me winds the previous week had taken down a lot of branches. He also said a number of people were having problems with the black locusts and that people who had them near their houses were having them removed, especially the really big trees. I’m not sure if that meant the locust borers were a new problem or not.

I saw some adult beetles for the first time in September of 2017. In October, I heard a red-headed woodpecker in the tree. It didn’t help. Three trunks came down last year.


Each year when a trunk came down, the locust put out one or two new ones. They moved over to a soaker hose I had and destroyed it by squeezing it. Last summer there were so many branches, they began infringing on other shrubs.

This winter I decided to have everything cut down, in hopes that would remove the borer eggs. After the tree trimmer left, I went out and removed the leaves and duff around the stool. I hoped to remove any eggs that might have fallen. When it gets a little warmer I may put down one of those poisons that kill grubs.

I know it will come back. Suckers I cut to the ground, always return. I haven’t decided how much new growth I’m going to let grow. I’m thinking I may try to return to a single tree, instead of the copse I had. As I expect many suckers will come up, I should be able to select one that won’t be in my way. The thorns are a nuisance when the branches grow into my pathways.

Or, once I get used to the bare spot, I may just keep them all cut down. While the legume flowers are fragrant when they bloom, the buds or flowers usually are killed by frost. I’m not sure they’re worth the cost of a tree trimmer every winter.


Notes on photographs:
1. Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) trunk fallen over the retaining wall, with the Dr. Huey roses that grew up into it. 5 June 2016.

2. Leaves and sawdust at the base of the tree. 8 June 2008.
3. Black locust stumps after it was cut down. 3 March 2019.
4. Damage in to wood of a trunk. 14 February 2019.