first frog!
May. 13th, 2020 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twoeleven...of the spring. or perhaps a toad. since i was mowing the lawn at the time, i was more interested in not turning it into a froggy frappé than checking which it was. and i've never been convinced that the lensed object on my phone is a camera.
in any case, i should probably start tracking the date i see the first hopping amphibian of the year as the real start of spring, as a counterpart to my winter starting with the first significant snowfall of the year (the snow must cover the grass to count).
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much to my surprise, both of the new blueberry bushes are blooming. while they are advertised to bloom the same season as planted, it doesn't always happen.
at least some of the blueberry bees and mason bees are still going strong, as they're still flying around, and more and more nesting tubes are filling with eggs. i'm pleased, since i was worried the warm-cold-warm routine we've been getting all spring would kill them all off.
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the domesticated and wild flowers seem to be doing well with little intervention. this makes my happy since the guerrilla gardening raids are in public places and thus hard to water regularly.
previously, i'd been starting sweet peas indoors and transplanting them, which had significant infant mortality. my best guess was that the seedlings became root bound, since the erratic springs the last few years has led to late last frosts and thus long periods growing indoors.
this year, i tried direct seeding as early as seemed reasonble (but before for the last frost) and they seem to be doing fine. lesson learned, i guess.
in any case, i should probably start tracking the date i see the first hopping amphibian of the year as the real start of spring, as a counterpart to my winter starting with the first significant snowfall of the year (the snow must cover the grass to count).
---
much to my surprise, both of the new blueberry bushes are blooming. while they are advertised to bloom the same season as planted, it doesn't always happen.
at least some of the blueberry bees and mason bees are still going strong, as they're still flying around, and more and more nesting tubes are filling with eggs. i'm pleased, since i was worried the warm-cold-warm routine we've been getting all spring would kill them all off.
---
the domesticated and wild flowers seem to be doing well with little intervention. this makes my happy since the guerrilla gardening raids are in public places and thus hard to water regularly.
previously, i'd been starting sweet peas indoors and transplanting them, which had significant infant mortality. my best guess was that the seedlings became root bound, since the erratic springs the last few years has led to late last frosts and thus long periods growing indoors.
this year, i tried direct seeding as early as seemed reasonble (but before for the last frost) and they seem to be doing fine. lesson learned, i guess.
no subject
Date: May. 14th, 2020 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: May. 14th, 2020 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: May. 14th, 2020 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: May. 14th, 2020 02:36 am (UTC)the front of the house has 1" mesh over the front so birds don't try to move in. the bees don't seem to mind.
i've used this set-up for a few years now, and it works pretty well. my only suggestion/comment is that blueberry bees seem more tolerant of nonsense (temperature swings, multiple rainy days in a row) than the mason bees. but i'm only trying to pollinate blueberries, not a wide range of crops.