Oh No! Not Again!
6 Mar 2021 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursulas_alcoveIn all my garden preparations, I forgot to take into consideration that this year is a Brood X year for our area. The cicadas are coming. They can reach up to 120 decibels and will be making noise from June until August. I am sorry. I won't be able to take your phone calls during that time. Noise aside, they are very destructive to the garden. I expect the Japanese maple to die. Last time they killed three major branches of that tree. This year, they will finish it off. Once they've laid their eggs, the larva will suck the sap out of the tree. Since the tree is already weak, it will be done-for. It is part of nature's cycle. However, all my garden depends on having a shade tree in that location. That tree is our AC, shading the south side of the house.
I think that instead of buying bushes and nursery plants that may not make it, I'll invest in a chainsaw and fencing for the yard. I need to keep deer away and the neighbor's destructive dogs. I'm sorry but sending your 5 year old out to control 2 animals in a yard without a fence typically doesn't work. This is evidenced by all the dog prints in the snow in my yard as well as the pile of crap their dogs left on my back porch. Those who know me know that I am allergic to dogs and do not appreciate this situation at all. Nuff said.
So instead of my wishlist of trees and blueberries, I am looking at T posts and fencing. I need a couple of gates as well. The postal carrier does need to cross over the property line. It's possible I get creative with the tree limbs in making a gate. I may also switch my desires to mushrooms. So much for my plans to conquer the universe. (Shucks, foiled again. If it wasn't for those kids and their pesky dog . . . oh, wait, that's Scooby Doo)
I will be lowering my expectations. There will not be fruit this year, except maybe mulberry. We may also lose the plum tree, which already has galls. And the two chokecherry trees. I'll be out spraying the apple tree. I'll be trying out my new mix of soap and essentials oils (clove, rosemary, and peppermint). It worked against aphids. This is one reason that native trees actually rock. They've developed defenses against the cicadas and other pests. That's why the mulberry trees will survive.
Meanwhile, I did a short video on my basement seed starting. https://youtu.be/4-xyAxPthRg
Enjoy!
I think that instead of buying bushes and nursery plants that may not make it, I'll invest in a chainsaw and fencing for the yard. I need to keep deer away and the neighbor's destructive dogs. I'm sorry but sending your 5 year old out to control 2 animals in a yard without a fence typically doesn't work. This is evidenced by all the dog prints in the snow in my yard as well as the pile of crap their dogs left on my back porch. Those who know me know that I am allergic to dogs and do not appreciate this situation at all. Nuff said.
So instead of my wishlist of trees and blueberries, I am looking at T posts and fencing. I need a couple of gates as well. The postal carrier does need to cross over the property line. It's possible I get creative with the tree limbs in making a gate. I may also switch my desires to mushrooms. So much for my plans to conquer the universe. (Shucks, foiled again. If it wasn't for those kids and their pesky dog . . . oh, wait, that's Scooby Doo)
I will be lowering my expectations. There will not be fruit this year, except maybe mulberry. We may also lose the plum tree, which already has galls. And the two chokecherry trees. I'll be out spraying the apple tree. I'll be trying out my new mix of soap and essentials oils (clove, rosemary, and peppermint). It worked against aphids. This is one reason that native trees actually rock. They've developed defenses against the cicadas and other pests. That's why the mulberry trees will survive.
Meanwhile, I did a short video on my basement seed starting. https://youtu.be/4-xyAxPthRg
Enjoy!
