Weather: We’ve moved into summer with long periods of low humidity punctuated by moisture moving from tropical storms formed on either side of Central America. Since the solstice afternoon temperatures have been in the 90s.
This week, I noticed the knots have been blown out of the south facing vertical board fence.
Last useful rain: 7/6. Week’s low: 46 degrees F. Week’s high: 96 degrees F in the shade. Smoke from Mexican fires continues to enter area, but now it’s being supplemented by lightening caused fires in the Gila Wilderness.
What’s blooming in the area: Hybrid roses, yellow potentilla, desert willow, trumpet creeper, silver lace vine, lilies, daylily, red hot poker, Spanish broom, sweet peas, Russian sage, blue flax, hollyhocks, golden spur columbine, datura, bouncing Bess, yellow yarrow, coreopsis, blanket flowers; green apples visible from road
What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Tamarix, cholla and prickly pear cacti, showy milkweed, white prairie evening primroses, tumble mustard, buffalo gourd, bindweed, green leaf five eyes, silver leaf nightshade, alfalfa, white sweet clover, yellow mullein, Queen Anne’s lace, plains paper flowers, goat’s beard, Hopi tea, golden hairy asters, wild lettuce, native and common dandelions
What’s blooming in my yard: Betty Prior and miniature roses, catmints, Rumanian sage, lady bells, Goodness Grows speedwell, Johnson’s blue geranium, winecup mallow, sidalcea, coral beard tongues, sea lavender, California poppy, coral bells, Dutch clover, white spurge, tomatillo, pink evening primroses, Mexican hats, white yarrow, chocolate flower, plains coreopsis, black-eyed Susan, anthemis, bachelor buttons, purple coneflower; pansies that wintered over
Bedding Plants: Wax begonia, nicotiana, pansies
What’s reviving/coming up: Perennial four o’clocks are often the last thing to emerge. Two, which had planted themselves, were visible this year on May 18. One I planted on the west side of the house, which never did well, appeared June 8. This week, the one from May under the cottonwood started to grow. On July 2, I saw six seedlings in the area. I assumed that was because I had started watering the tree more often, but no, it’s the cycle. The original parent plant, now crowded by garlic chives, made itself known yesterday.
Tasks: I was able to burn again yesterday. The brush pile had gotten much higher from the winterfat I’d cut from under the cottonwood and the skunkbush I removed that was crowding its more desirable neighbors. I had laid the debris the length of the partially burned peach limb. This time, the fire got most of that wood. It had been dried by two fires and the weather. What’s left is already buried by the next round of fuel, this time white sweet clover plants.
Animal sightings: Rabbit, hummingbird on coral beard tongues, chickadees and other small dark birds, gecko, sulphur, monarch and cabbage butterflies, bumble and small bees, crickets, grasshoppers, hornets, mosquitoes, small ants.
Few of the seeds I planted June 21 have come up. Nothing has emerged where the small ants were active. On June 24, I found the cantaloup seeds had been dug up and the shells left behind. Then two weeks ago, the rabbit appeared. It hadn’t been around yet this season, but now it was lurking in the area along the drive where the other melon seeds had been planted. If anything did come up, it was eaten immediately.
Five years ago some elephant garlic appeared next to my garage. During the winter, the ground squirrel ate it. It must have dropped a piece or a seed blew away. A couple weeks ago I found one plant about four feet from the original.
Weekly update: Some experts write calendars of tasks to help the novice gardener. They assume some kind of regularity, like the cycles of the moon. In my yard, there are annual tasks, but their timing depends entirely on the unpredictable weather.
In a good year, I simply do what could be called regular maintenance. I have to weed every bed at least once a year. I always think it would be nice to actually have this completed so all I had to do was pull out new invaders. However, I’ve come to realize this would take a work force like that found on pre-Civil War plantations, one that could be deployed en masse during the lulls in the cotton growing season.
When I do seem to be caught up, I work on projects that have been neglected. Since I didn’t do anything two years ago because of the partially torn ligament in my right thumb, there has been a lot of neglected areas that needed attention. I did some last year, but spent more time cleaning overgrown beds.
This year, I’ve had a little more time to dead with problems. One was caused by June grass that lodged itself between the concrete blocks in front of the entrance to the house. Herbicides didn’t touch it, probably because they depend on a plant’s metabolism to be effective and many grasses have a different feeding cycle.
I bought a battery powered string trimmer this year, and, at least, was able to cut it down. But, of course, that won’t remove it or kill it.
This past week I started digging it out. Actually, digging isn’t quite the word, since I was using a chisel to get into the cracks and remove the roots. Since it is a bunch grass, that means it produces new clusters every year. Each has to be treated separately.
Once I got them removed, I discovered the area underneath was covered by at least an inch of dirt. I used to wonder when I saw plants on the prairie that were higher than their neighbors, if they held the soil while the wind took the nearby dirt away, or if they captured the dirt from the wind. The plants in the blocks answered that question: they provide their own soil.
While I was feeling good about finally getting to clear a nuisance, disaster loomed elsewhere. I went from working on my own schedule to running from the devil as the wild lettuce started to bud. I had let the plants grow, knowing I could wait until they bloomed to do anything. Since they’re biannuals, I assumed I was safe so long as I kept them from going to seed. I spent a couple mornings with loppers cutting them down.
Then, just as I thought I had that problem under control, the white sweet clover started to bloom. I was out this morning again with the loppers trying to get them before they went to seed.
Notes on photographs:
1. Pansies (Viola wittrockiana) blooming in the shade of the peach tree, 7 July 2019. The Queen Anne’s lace is growing wild in the runoff trough for a culvert. The pansies were advertised as Delta True Blue and there was no sign of a yellow one in the pack.
2. Elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum), 6 July 2018.
3. June grass (Koeleria cristata) that’s been cropped by the string trimmer, 7 July 2019.
4. June grass that remains after part of the clump was removed, 7 July 2019. It’s surrounded by its captive soil.
5. What’s left of the peach limb (Prunus persica), 6 June 2019.
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