Summer is here and all of the plants have leafed out.
Summer Kickoff
Sweet William Returns
The various clumps of dianthus growing along the fence seem to have generally survived the winter and are blooming again.
Spring Insects
Just as the plants are springing back into life, so are the insects that feed on them.
A number of the tiny elm trees espaliered into the fence have numerous leaves covered by tiny sack galls. Inside each is some type of insect, although I’m not certain whether they are aphids or mites. The result is somewhat unsightly, but reportedly doesn’t do significant damage to the plant.
More concerning is the invasive spotted lanterfly, which for the first time I have spotted in nymph form. The fact that these are black rather than red indicates they are a still at an early instar; they will turn red when they molt in a few weeks, and then assume their winged adult form later in the summer. They love to suck the sap from newly growing grapevines, and I’ll need to put some effort into limiting their population so they don’t do too much damage.
Purple Fireworks
I love the way the globes of these alliums intersect and overlap, like adjacent spherical pyrotechnic bursts.
Azalea Bonanza
This azalea bush looked a little forlorn over the winter, but has made a wonderful return.
Budbreak!
This week’s warm weather has encouraged the grapevines to open their first buds.
Neighborhood Treebed Mulching
The Columbus-Amsterdam BID, which coordinates neighborhood-improvement efforts along those avenues, arranged for a bulk delivery of mulch from the city’s Parks Department, and asked for volunteers to help apply it to neighborhood treebeds.
Continue reading “Neighborhood Treebed Mulching”Daffodils in Bloom
The daffodils have been in bloom for two weeks and show no sign of stopping.
Everything’s Coming Up Crocus
One of the earliest blooms on our block.
Mulchfest!
Every December, many of the city’s residents bring home a small conifer for the winter holidays — and then discard them in early January.
Mulchfest is part of the city’s adaptation to this cycle: deploying large chipper trucks at numerous locations around the city, where people can bring their trees to be chipped, and optionally take home a bag of the resulting material to be used as mulch.
While most people just leave their tree, or perhaps take home a small bag of pine chips, there doesn’t seem to be any real limit to how much mulch you’re allowed to take, so I’ve learned to bring a shopping cart and a stack of empty tote bags, so I can bring home enough for a dozen sidewalk treebeds around the neighborhood.
The mix of pine needles, twigs, and chips will slowly break down over the coming year to provide a stream of supplemental nutrients to the soil, as well as improving moisture absorption and retention and building soil health.
