Good Evening, garden friends across the pond. Madgardener or "Maddie"
here. I had a question after hearing something out of the corner of my
ear this morning during the starting madness of my day. Is anyone
seeing some disturbing trends in the warmer than usual weather over your
way? I see Sacha has Japanese anemone opening up earlier than usual. I,
myself have noticed that blooming seasons are melting together, so to
speak. My "fall" Japanese anemone's ever since I finally got them to
take for me have consistently started budding just in time for the
arrival for the voracious munching habits of the "beneficial" insect,
the Blister beetle. This "beneficial" insect, touted by Rodale's
Organic Gardening book is listed as a "good" bug because it's larvae
love to munch upon the larvae of grasshoppers. Thus their consideration
for "beneficial" interactions. Now don't get me wrong here. I am as
organic and beneficial as I possibly can be. But let a gardener who has
tried and miserably failed to get Japanese anemone to take root and
flourish for me YEARS to do this get undone by one hatching of black and
charcoal black striped eating machines that I can't pinch with my
fingers because this is why they buggers are called BLISTER
BEETLES............(apparently they are the main ingredient in the old
sexual powders, "Spanish Fly" that they used to tout as such wonderous
medicinals. Dried up and ground blister beetles taken internally caused
the penis to get irritated and engorge..ouch!

Ok, so back to what I was spouting about......MY Japanese anemone are
budding wonderfully and soon, the hateful blister beetles will hatch
from their slumbers in the raised soils of my beds and with that waking
they will have a case of munchies that will rival any stoned gathering
of pot smokers without cookies and drinks to satiate them with. They
literally munch the leaves to the bones, or veins. That weakens the
beautiful, fat buds enough that there are NO flowering afterwards. And
the full beetles then copulate and die after they lay eggs. Like most
beetles do.....well, organic and beneficial or not, I nuke the *******s
with Pyrethrum sprays. I don't think that my little corner of earth's
balance has been horribly altered so much that the untimely death of a
few HUNDRED blister beetles will matter.

I also disturbingly noticed the absolute lack of a beautiful spider that
I would be seeing right now. She is black and yellow and quite large,
making a rather impressive web with a distinctive "zipper" in the middle
of her nets. I haven't seen her in nine years here on the ridge. I see
the red ones that everyone walks into the webs that she slings across
great expanses and blows your mind at the sheer size of, and once you've
walked into her web, you do the "there's a spider in my hair" dance
because she WILL be on your head or somewhere close when you walk thru
her ministrations. At least, I HOPE I see her. But it bothers me that
the black and yellow one (I don't know her Latin name or identity) is
literally GONE from this area. I've even looked down in my woods. I do
NOT spray my gardens unless I am forced to. And even then I am careful
to what I spray. And I don't madly spray. Only the blister beetles.
The Japanese beetles I pluck. And this year, I noticed less than normal
"June beetles" which oddly have always as long as I've played with them
as a child or noticed them as an adult arrived in July.......So that
tells me the larger than normal populations of skunks have sufficiently
done their grub loving jobs. Hardly any June bugs, and less Japanese
beetles, at least where I am at. I can attest to the high population of
skunks because I kept hitting them with the van and was tempted to
rename it "Pepe La Phew".....LOL

And we also seem to have quite a high population of raccoons around here
too....hmmmmmmmmmm, that could only mean their love of people's trash
has hit payload payoff because more people are moving in here and
building subdivisions where there once used to be pastures and hillsides
and woods.

But what I was worried about was hearing today that London had
temperatures around 101o F ???!??? Asphalt was melting and there is
also a drought going on? Now, having grown up in Nashville, Tennessee
and experiencing summers that I remember sometimes got so hot that tar
bubbled up on the roads and we kids played with it.....well, I have to
wonder if this is a foreboding sign of other things that might be out of
our control. Yes, yes, global warming and all that. I'm not here to
talk politics. And I will not carry the total blame of gas guzzling
consumers. Apparently the Chinese are now eager to embrace Western ways
and there be far more of them to consume and pillage. So here's the
extended tangent... I keep a ten year journal. I've kept records of
blooming perennials for quite a few years now. It's not a bad habit to
have, actually. What I'm seeing lately is that some perennials are
arriving earlier and finishing quicker. That varies of course because
each year is different. But I have noticed changes.

What I noticed more than anything is that since the early 70's, instead
of decent winters in Tennessee, no matter if it was Middle Tennessee
(where I grew up which is where Nashville is at) or Eastern Tennessee
(where I am now, and I can't count West Tennessee as they have always
had milder winters)what I have seen, with exception to a few abnormal
cold snaps that plummeted temperatures back to colder, I now remember
rainy winters. Instead of snowy winters. Less snows in early to mid
Spring. I remember as a child, snow sometimes on the dogwood blossoms.
And now as a gardener in her early 50's, I now know that is around the
mid to latter part of April.

I also remember my mama grew me up to wear that damned undershirt until
Memorial Day which was in May. No matter how freaking hot it got. If it
did. But most times, shorts weather came after Memorial day. The same
rule of thumb applied to planting tomato plants. No one used to plant
them until Memorial Day. Now I see people setting out their tomato's by
Mid March!! And working at the Lowes store in the garden center, I
began to notice that the cole crops that came in as seedlings for
gardens that used to arrive in February, are now coming after New Year's
Day. The same thing with onion sets, bare root berry canes and the like.

So since this must be confusing. yes, I still would like to hear what's
going on with you gardening friends in your neck of the woods. I,
myself am having a parched summer. Hot temperatures that have stayed in
the 90's now for days on end. Any storms pass me or poop out quickly,
leaving the soils barely touched. It's so bad right now, that the
Yellow finches are stripping the Kugglesonne Rudbeckia blossoms of their
petals, not waiting for the pollinators to get the pollens and make
viable seeds, and ripping into the raw, green seed heads. For moisture?
Or food. I am going to purchase thistle seed and hang socks out for
them to nourish themselves with. And to purchase a birdbath for them to
get water. That will answer that question then.

I can't tell how badly it is with the summer's weather on the birds
because my hateful neighbor's inbred and over productive cats are at a
level of population that I fear the birds have been snatched up by
starving felines. My own four, fixed cats are fed well enough to make
them a bit lax on their natural inclinations. Maggie still hunts, but
captures more voles and the stupid Mourning dove of which we are
abundant in. Last count, his son told me asshole has over 25 cats
inside his stinking house. And yes, I can smell it from the middle of
the driveway which is about 30 feet or less from the house he lives
in......so it's pretty bad.

back to what I was concerned about. I'd just like to know how things
are over there with you all and your gardening efforts and how Mom's
Nature is treating you. Believe it or not, I care and despite that I
can't change the weather, I'd like to keep track of things with you. I
hope everyone is well, and that the heat wave has only caused
discomfort. I fear we're all in for some adjusting. My love and
concerns. I, myself have shut off the central air many times recently
and turned just the fan on to circulate the airs around. But by mid
morning with temperatures barely hitting 80 this last week, if I had
ventured to open a window, I'd have let in hot evening air. Yep, things
are certainly not what I'd consider normal. I do remember hot summers,
but usually at the end of July and August. When my youngest son was
born, I took him home on the 5th of August and the temperatures were
104o F. So hot summers are normal. But not like this I don't think.
I'll have to research this more. Thanks for putting up with me.

madgardener (maddie) up on the hazy ridge, in desperate need of rains,
back in a crispy Fairy Holler, overlooking a barely visible English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee