Weather: Rain last Sunday from the north, followed by a week of July temperatures with no low-level water vapor. That means all the humidity is from water being sucked out of the ground and plants. Soil that’s not being watered every third day behaves like dry sand when it’s disturbed.
Leaves on a few area cottonwoods have turned yellow. Many of my cherry tree leaves are yellowing, and some spirea leaves have turned orange.
Last useful rain: 9/1. Week’s low: 50 degrees F. Week’s high: 95 degrees F in the shade.
What’s blooming in the area: Hybrid roses, trumpet creeper, silver lace vine, red-tipped yuccas, Russian sage, buddleia, bird of paradise, roses of Sharon, datura, coreopsis, chrysanthemums, cultivated and Maximilian sunflowers.
One may has selling pears, apples, and peaches. One person has at least three large melons on the ground.
What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Buffalo gourd, bindweed, green leaf five eyes, alfalfa, white sweet clover, leather leaf globe mallow, goat’s head, yellow evening primrose, pigweed, Russian thistle, broom snakeweed, Hopi tea, native sunflowers, áñil del muerto, wild lettuce, horseweed, goldenrod, Tahoka daisies, golden hairy asters, quack grass, seven-weeks, side oats and black gramas.
Stems on Virginia creeper turned red.
What’s blooming in my yard: Betty Prior and miniature roses, yellow potentilla, garlic chives peaked, Royal Standard hosta, catmints, calamintha, lead plant, winecup mallow, sidalcea, white spurge, large-flowered soapwort, David phlox, perennial four o’clock, Mexican hats, African marigolds, chocolate flower, plains coreopsis, black-eyed Susan, anthemis, Mönch asters peaked, bachelor buttons, white Sensation cosmos
Bedding Plants: Wax begonia, pansies, sweet alyssum, nicotiana, snapdragons
Animal sightings: Rabbit, chickadees, magpie in cottonwood, geckos, small toad, monarch butterfly, bumble and small bees, heard crickets, grasshoppers, hornets, small ants
Weekly update: I’ve had trouble with aphids ever since I had someone do some yard work for me in 2013. The insecticides I’d used didn’t seem to help, so this year in May I tried systemics. They seemed worthless as well.
In mid-August I noticed some leaves on a cherry tree and a younger peach were distorted. As I mentioned last week, when I tried to find an insecticide locally I couldn’t.
So, Sunday I finally sprayed the trees with something from a Santa Fé big box that was supposed to handle insects, mites, and powder mildew. It even was supposed to last for 14 days.
I sprayed early in the morning when the bees weren’t out. And, while I sprayed as much of the yard as the bottle would do, I didn’t spray the garlic chives where they’re active.
The air was still. At most there was a 20% chance of rain in Los Alamos, and nothing less than 50% ever comes to my yard. Very little low-level water vapor lay over the state. It was so dry, the Forest Service was exploiting conditions to expand the fire in the caldera and was eyeing one at Canjilon.
Around 3 pm, the weather bureau reported heavy rain in Los Alamos County. At 5 pm, some thunder. Then, the wind started throwing water at my north facing windows. It didn’t last long, maybe 20 minutes, but everything was wet. So much for the insecticide.
When I went out Monday, there were peaches everywhere on the ground. It was trash day, and we’re limited to one of those plastic containers a week. Boxes had been accumulating for weeks, because I was getting rid of the weeds I’d cleaned and bagged.
I spent my yard time breaking down boxes and cursing tape. When I was a kid, sealing tape was considered a luxury and used sparingly. Now, people who ship cover every opening with tape, and sometimes the entire box. It’s dangerous and arduous to get boxes designed for easy opening to flatten.
I finally got out Tuesday. I began by sitting in the June grass under the main peach and picking up nearby fruit. That proved unproductive, so I got out a small hoe - its handle is about 4' long and the blade 3". I used it like an oar, pulling fruit in to where I was sitting.
The younger peaches had very thorny Dorothy Perkins and Woods roses growing under them. I stood with the hoe pulling the fruit out. I developed different techniques for guiding them between dead rose canes. It was more like miniature golf than a putting green or croquette court.
Random thoughts come when you’re doing mindless tasks. Earlier in the summer, when the fruit was just turning color, I speculated on fruit trees being the original model for Christmas trees. How else would someone think of hanging colored balls on a branch?
Later, as the boughs began to hang heavy I thought of the "Cherry Tree Carol" in which Mary asks Joseph to get her some fruit. He refuses, and tells her to get the father of her child to do it. Then, like magic, the fruit-laden bough bends down.
At that time I was going out every week or so and removing fruit to protect the tree. Because it wasn’t ripe, I had to use nippers to cut it. And, it only did so much good. I still had three branches break that had been damaged by aphids years ago. The last is still in the burn pile, where it has only been reduced by three firings.
This week, after I cleared the free fall from Sunday, I came out each morning to find more peaches on the ground. A number were half eaten. I had to wear rubber gloves to handle them.
The phrase "if you don’t like my peaches, don’t shake my tree" ran through my mind. When I sat in the grass under the main tree, I wondered if it was possible to get some of the fruit before it fell without having to pick it. I took the hoe and used it to shake a branch. I was lucky nothing hit me on the head.
I now have about 250 pounds of peaches in plastic bags rotting in the burn area. I think the limit for those trash containers is about 50 pounds. That means, if I get rid of 30 pounds a week, it’s going to take more than a month to get rid of the harvest. Meantime, not everything has come down. I’m adding 10 to 15 pounds a day.
So far, the rabbit is only eating the day’s bounty. It comes out before there’s enough light to work, and eats its fill. Few ants have been interested, and the hornets are still over on the garlic chives.
But, of course, I can’t use the burn area until the bags are gone. That means, as I remove dead wood from the Russian olive and other trees, it’s going to accumulate and create its own kind of lure for vermin. Some carnivore left the remains of an animal on top of a grass clump in the pile last night.
Notes on photographs:
1. Maximilian sunflowers (Helianthus maximiliani) starting their annual sprawl, 7 September 2019.
2. Peaches as they fell Sunday night, 3 September 2019.
3. Peaches raked out from the grasses and dead wood, 4 September 2019.
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