Posted on 05/07/2008 7:50:50 AM PDT by Gabz
Wow! What an arctic blast! Can you remember a colder Good Friday and Easter? It wouldn’t be so bad if it had been cold all along, but to be in the high eighties and then wham! Frostbite! And then, to add insult to injury, it stayed miserably cold with repeated heavy frosts until at least the tenth of April! Condolences to all of you who had your warm season gardens planted.
The weather will swing in the opposite direction like a demented weathervane soon enough and we will be miserable with the high temperatures. Sure doesn’t look like we’re going to have much of a spring this year. Looks like it’s setting up to be a dry season, too. On the other hand, the spring flowers and greening up lasted a bit longer than usual this year because of the cool weather. Some years, it seems the azaleas and other pretties are here and gone overnight. This year, with the cool spell, they’re sort of in slow motion—blooming and lasting for a bit. The trees, all russets and golds and bronzes, have kept their early spring raiment on for us to enjoy, instead of turning green right away.
Speaking of remembering—many of you are old enough to remember when summer time meant going barefoot. Except for trips to town or church, shoes were abandoned the day school let out and forgotten until school started back in the fall.
Remember how you had zigzagging paths through the yard so you could avoid the big patches of clover? Remember why you avoided those patches of clover? You went out of your way because the clover was alive and working with honey bees and you didn‘t want to get stung. First, because bee stings hurt, and second, because you knew if a bee stung you it would die. Now, can you remember the last time you saw a honey bee?
Clover is becoming scarce in our over-manicured yards, but honey bees are practically non-existent. Bees are critically important for pollination. There are bumbles, and wood bees, and other lesser bees. They all do a fine job of pollinating—but none of them have the added benefit of giving us honey.
Here’s a scary fact: something approaching 80% of the honey bees in the U. S. have disappeared this winter. Not died outright, because there are no carcasses. Disappeared. The hives are mostly empty, the honey left behind. And not just here—all over the world devastating losses of honey bees are being reported. The correct term for this disappearance of bees is Colony Collapse Disorder—a fancy name for no one knows.
Theories abound. For one, something similar happened in the forties. Some scientists think it has something to do with cyclic sun spots affecting the earth‘s magnetic field—sunspots were worse in the forties, as they are now. Bees use the earth’s magnetic field to guide them as they travel to flowers and then back to the hive. So they all got lost—at once? That’s about as plausible as all of them being abducted by aliens.
Several types of mites and various diseases also plague honey bees—but both mites and diseases leave bodies behind.
Pesticides have also been blamed, but which ones, and why aren’t all hives, especially if they’re in the same place, affected?
So, what happened to the honey bees?
A simple explanation for pollination is this: the bees move from flower to flower, picking up a little pollen here, dropping off a little there, and presto! The plants are happy, the bees are happy, and we’re happy. The plants get pollinated, the bees collect pollen to make honey with, and we get our veggies and stuff. If there aren’t any honey bees to pollinate things, several things happen. We don’t get any honey, and crop yields go down—way down. Some of this can be counter-acted by shaking the blossoms of your crops together, mimicking the action of the bees. This can be done on a small scale, such as in your garden. What happens to thousands of acres of crops?
Of course, with the early warm spell, and then the week long freeze, we may not have to worry over much about not having any bees to pollinate anything this year. The cold weather damaged the fruit crops—grapes, fruit trees, blueberries, and pecans to name a few, and all suffered in varying degrees. The extent of the damage remains to be seen, but it’s a pretty sure bet that fruit prices are going to go out of sight this summer.
Reminders for this month:
May is usually warm enough to plant the things that really crave heat—okra, lima beans, field peas. Sweet potato slips are usually available mid to end of the month.
End of May is time to spray your azaleas to head off lace bugs, and your junipers and arborvitaes and Leland’s to head off spider mites and bagworms. Spider mites are tiny, nearly invisible insects that suck the life out of plants. When they attack junipers and such, usually what you notice first is a branch or one side of your shrub turning brown. Left untreated, spider mites can eventually kill their host.
Bagworms aren’t the ones that build huge webs full of disgusting yellow striped caterpillars, the ones that began in April and are crawling all over everything right now. Technically, those are tent caterpillars, and there seems to be an overabundance of them this year. Yucky they may be, but usually the birds will take care of them. Most of the time, they’re too high for us to reach in order to spray anyway. Bagworms are caterpillars that make a nest of juniper needles and hang from the shrubs and trees like forgotten Christmas ornaments. Of course, with all the chemicals that have been banned, picking the bagworms off may be your only solution.
Big reminder: Don’t forget that Mother’s Day is this month. Flowers are always a great gift!
The weather finally got warm enough to put out some of my seedlings yesterday! Now it’s hot and dry.
Our new across the road neighbor stopped by yesterday and gave us about 2 pounds of “Sugar king” corn seed. So now I’ll have 2 varieties and will do even mmore staggered plantings of it.
Of course that is IF my poor husband can ever get the danged tiller to start again.
We used to plow the dirt up onto the sides of the plants, but I've just let them grow the way they are and they still produce. The biggest thing about potatoes is to have enough loose dirt below the seed potato. I planted some in a hole and filled it with hay. They went crazy and had a lot of produce.
FWIW, we are expected to hit 92 tomorrow and 97 on Thursday. The tomato plants are loaded. My garden is kind of wet with the 1.2" rain we had the other night. I noticed some tomato and pepper plants already have yellowing leaves from too much water.
I planted my corn too early and had to replant last week.
I only have four dinky little rows that are finally filling up.
Something ate most of my zucchini plants. Most of the slugs are dead now. Squirrels?
I need to plant some more in a few days.
Thanks. The plants are almost two feet tall and flowering. I dug around and not one sign of a spud.
I guess I’ll just wait and see.
My daughter-in-law has been sending me pictures of the baby's development. S/he is now a kumquat... lol
Birthday card was signed "Rob, Michelle, and the kidney bean.
So, I sent Michelle a Mommy's Day Card from "the kumquat" :o)
Whatever you do, never let the plants get too much water. Potato plants and the spuds will rot in the ground.
chuckle!!!!
I just remembered there is a hole in the fence next to the squash.
One day, I saw a cat batting the leaves around and darting back under the hole in the fence. It was so funny!
Maybe I’ll cover up the hole and see what happens.
I figured overwatering would make them rot.
So far, they are very healthy looking.
Is this the gardening ping list? I’d love to get on it....
could you add me to your ping list if you have one?..thx
Welcome aboard — I’ve added you both!
How pretty!
Our cats get into the garden too. They love to lay under the plants and watch for birds and other invaders.
I noticed several dead grasshoppers and other bugs the past couple of years.
My question is, is this normal for a compost pile ... to create this grat ash?
No! Stop! DO NOT plant anymore squirrels!
Oh, wait—you meant zucchini....
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