mattie g

Yeah...that came out of nowhere.

It’s going to be about 90 for a few days - beyond that, who knows? The freaking drama...

Not gonna lie...I love living in a world in which a dry month following what seems like 30 straight months of above-average precip = drought.

DrOugHt11!1!!1

That’s a beautiful landscape, @CAPE...but that pond is even nicer than everything else!

Forgot to tell a story about a family around the corner who were seemingly so afraid of the first emerging cicadas that they took a f’ing blowtorch to the tree on their front yard to get rid of them. I’m hoping they’ve realized the sheer folly of their ways, but I’m not 100% certain they have.

I’ve used beer traps to pretty good effect. Slug-Go also does a decent job, but I find that combining “treatments” keeps them at bay for long enough that any damage they might inflict later on doesn’t hurt the mature plants. Squash vine borers...I surround the bottoms of the vines with either paper towel rolls or Solo cups with the bottoms cut out. It helps that I usually only grow cucurbits, which they don’t really like, but when I had “volunteer” pumpkins a few years ago they didn’t give me trouble.

They started late, so they should be around for a couple weeks. Super loud in my neighborhood. Nice to be back in town and experience this again!

Got back last night after eight days away...garden has exploded. The only plants having a little bit of a tough time is the basil I planted the day before we left. I expect them to take off before too long, but the jalapeños and tomatoes are beasts. The pond landscaping is like a jungle after only a week. No idea what to do with it - trim, transplant, leave it alone - at this point!

What’s the GFS 10-day look like?

Drought

So no drought?

Nice call, GFS.

Heading out of town for a week. Had plenty all around the neighborhood so far, and the morning songs are definitely louder today. Hope we don’t miss the biggest week!

I've been wondering whether those eggs/nymphs that dropped from trees that have been since removed may not have survived if the roots they were feeding off had died. Might not matter if the tree was removed a year or so before emergence, but there must be a point at which those roots don't provide the xylem they need. Maybe they can burrow elsewhere to find other food sources?

Exactly my experience from Sunday. The woods are really dense and always much cooler under the canopy, so it makes sense that they'd be delayed, especially since the soil temps in the sunnier part of my front lawn have only just hit 63 in the last day or two.

We'll wear a mask anywhere we go with the kids indoors. Not worried about the pool and all that, but you know full well that plenty of unvaccinated folks will go without masks in places that won't require them. Man...the CDC did such a poor job of communicating this.

Backyard ground temp is 59-60, which is why there’s been no emergence there yet. Under the front-yard holly is 63 on average and we’re having the biggest emergence yet this evening.

Took a walk in the woods surrounding our neighborhood this morning with the girls and pup. Not a cicada to be seen. As soon as you get to the edges of the neighborhood - particularly the south- and west-facing sections - you begin seeing them. Pretty obvious that the shaded forest floor being much cooler than the surrounding lawns had resulted in there being a layer emergence there. I’m expecting that the upcoming warmth will result in an explosion of hatching throughout the woods by the beginning of next week.

I’ve only done onions twice, but a raised bed should certainly work. I’d say that it’s a bit late for onions, though. They’re best going into the ground as soon as you can work the soil in late winter/early spring.

How about you respect the policies of the stores you visit? If you don’t like the policies, then you can feel free to shop elsewhere.

And suddenly 100% of Americans will appear to be vaccinated...

Cool picture (at least I think so) of four cicadas in various stages of molting on the holly tree. Taken last night at about 9:00 or so.

Deep down, you know the neighborhood moms like to get peed on.