Heat Slows Everything Down

As July winds down, the garden has slowed way down. It's been hot-hot-hot! And rain has only come in a couple of big lumps. The DC region had an epic rainstorm - most ever recorded at one time at National Airport - 6"! While the airport is only 12 miles from here, we got about an inch of rain is all. I've watered the garden, at least the parts I care about, with the flowers and especially the new plants. And my old epic oak tree gets watered with that, and denuded shagbark hickory. But the heat and lack of rain means I may need to water more, despite my vow of not encouraging the grass to grow and then need cutting. So here are the vignettes of what is blooming.

I have NY Ironweed seeded everywhere.
I love its deep purple blooms.
Coneflowers in the background.

This tender tropical is my favorite this year!

This obscure guy is a native lobelia,
known as "Indian Tobacco".
I'm certain it's a native that just volunteered,
but it's welcome in my yard.

This is the showy, but also native lobelia,
known as cardinal flower.
I planted it and I want more!
I love red flowers.

Coreopsis, or tickseed.

These are onions and hyssop, pollinator favorites
but deer resistant, planted in the harsh sun where the
Big Spruce used to be.

This is looking down over the slope the Big Spruce used to occupy. In the foreground, Verbena bonarensis (not native but lovely, seeded itself from the single time I planted it nearby years ago), mid-ground is the hyssop and onions, and background is NY ironweed.

Not blooming, but thriving interesting foliage.
"Brighten a dark spot" they said. It does.

Attacked!

I noticed, idly, a couple of days ago that my adolescent shagbark hickory had lost some leaves on one of its branches. Yesterday, I looked out the window and at least half of the leaves were missing! There were green spines from some of the leaves on the denuded branches, so I assumed someone was eating it.

I took some pictures and posted them on the local neighborhood listserve, and also a local gardening one. The pictures weren't great, and I didn't get a lot of useful information. I dug out my camera with a long lens, and its battery was dead. An hour of charging later, I went out and took some high resolution photos and found these caterpillars. Also residue (previous instars?) on the trunk. And under the tree, it was very unpleasant, it appeared to be raining caterpillar poop (scientific name "frass").



The tree, planted by me as a stick about 15 years ago, is way too tall for me to be able to reach where the caterpillars were to spray with chemicals. Instead, I sprayed them with a high pressure stream of water from the ground, which knocked some of them off the tree, and maybe annoyed the others. But considering how hot it was, it was probably well received by them. I also topped off the bird bath, thinking birds were my only hope.

 This morning, I didn't see any caterpillars when I went out, but I bought some Bt. This is a bacteria that is specific to kill caterpillars and not much else, and doesn't persist in the environment. When I got back, I saw a regular parade of caterpillars making their way from my hickory, across the front walk, and headed steadily north under the azaleas in the shade. For no reason other than vindictiveness, I made it rain Bt on their parade. There was satisfaction in this.

I also preemptively sprayed my only other hickory, on the ground and on the trunk, though it wasn't their direction.

Healthy, established trees should be able to withstand being eaten for as many as two years in a row. Sadly, this tree was subject to big stress last year when the Big Spruce fell. On its way down, its branches grabbed the hickory and bent it double, all the way to the ground. When the crew came to remove the Big Spruce, I pointed out this hickory and said I wanted to save it. They were glad to have it pointed out, because these trees might whip back up and cause injury. As it turns out, it only came partially up. The arborist gave it a less than 50-50 chance to survive. This spring, it seemed to be quite healthy. It leaned, but it was filling out and growing straight on the new growth.

Luckily, it doesn't threaten my house or any powerlines, so I can just allow nature to take its course. If it lives, great, and if not, it just means more light and an opportunity to plant something else.

High Summer

It feels like high summer came a bit early. It's been hot and dry. Today, a little less hot (hooray!) but even drier. Yesterday morning, I watered for three hours, in front, inside and outside the fence. The birds loved it! I am thinking of a water feature for in the back, at least a bird bath. I've been watering the vegetables, and the pots, as well.

I did another substantial cutback / rootout of the sweetshrub yesterday, maybe a quarter of its mass. I think I've decided to remove it entirely from that location:  the best, sunshiny spot in front. It is too aggressive, and insufficiently interesting. In that front clump of bushes outside the fence but by the frontdoor and my bedroom window, I have the sweetshrub, several blueberries, a shadbush, a dogwood, an oakleaf hydrangea that is also way too big, an arrowwood and a cranberry viburnum. When the sweetshrub comes out, there will be more room for the better behaved blueberries. I may think about yet another shrub. The birds love the berries and they flit around inside the thicket.

I may transplant pieces of the sweetshrub to a a shadier site outside the fence, where it is not so likely to be aggressive. I had the shrub for nearly 20 years, and it's only been a problem recently. I was surprised to see the oakleaf hydrangea is also sprouting suckers. I'll transplant some of them to the shade outside the fence as well.

I've been studying the patterns of shade and light. After 8 in the morning, it's uncomfortable to work in the sun, so I have to plan my work carefully. Today, I mowed the side yard. It was mostly shady when I started, but the sun quickly came around and it was half sun before I was done. I was struck by how the grass is so different at the sunny end, sparse and scratchy, versus lush and green and soft at the shadier, driveway, end. The shade at that end is partially from the apple tree that I plan to get rid of (when the crop is done), so things will change.

I found both a dead mouse and a dead baby bunny in the yard today. I didn't examine the mouse, but the bunny had (minor from the outside) injuries, but hadn't been snacked on. Luckily, I got there before Rocky did!  It may have been the baby from the Great Bunny Rescue last week, but no way to tell.  The neighborhood is crawling (hopping) with bunnies - I see them on every walk, crossing roads. I wonder how big their territories are?