July at Bean Hill

The last daylily has come and gone, but what a show they put on this year, even though they're all past due to be divided. We have dozens and dozens of daylilies. They prefer sunny, well-drained locations, but I find they thrive in almost any condition. They are among my favorites; all those bright yellows and oranges are simply joyous. At the Carr Farm across the road, a horticulturalist raises daylilies of all colors, and mid-July sells them for $5 a plant, so we've expanded the color palette or our daylily collection.

July has been gorgeous, with the average monthly high and low temperatures both 1.5 degrees below the historic averages. We had a few very hot and humid days, but no daytime temperature was more than 5 degrees above normal. Twenty nights had above normal temperatures, with three being 9-11 degrees higher than normal. However, sixteen days registered below normal highs, and so things balanced out nicely. If I pay no attention to what's happened temperature-wise in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest this summer, or to the Antarctic ice shelf that is now an iceberg the size of Delaware, I can pretend that all's right with the world.

There was more than enough rain for the month, and it mostly came in two torrential downpours. The average normal rainfall for July is 4.79". This month we had 8.33", slightly more than 3.5" above normal. Two of those inches covered our basement floor when the sump pumps couldn't keep up with the day-long deluge! That was a first.

At the beginning of the month, we introduced 100 leaf cutter bees to their new home just before a surprising downpour, and never saw them again. Last week we brought in 100 more, and they seem quite happy. As I noted in last month's blog, we're seeing lots of honey bees and bumble bees and more butterflies than in the past two years. The re-emergence of those pollinators plus the introduction of the mason and leaf cutter bees--along with more than plentiful rain--may account for the lush beauty of this year's gardens.

Between mid-September to mid-October we'll be having the daylilies divided. (We don't do this kind of work anymore.) So if you live in the area and are looking to fill space in your garden with a prolific and faithful bloomer, come on by.

Summertime

June's weather statistics for Bean Hill echoed May's, although June had more days of above normal temperatures (23 vs. 14), and more days of 10 degrees or more above normal (6 vs. 2). Like May, June's high average was 1.5 degrees above the historic average high, but the average lows were 2.4 degrees below the historic average. For the second month, precipitation was almost one inch above normal (.98). Overall, the month was beautiful due to low humidity: skies were very blue, and in the shade, even on the hottest days, the breeze was refreshing.

Monarchs and Black Swallowtails have been spotted. Cabbage Whites continue to be seen in abundance. The Mason Bees have completed their life cycle, and left two dozen nesting tubes filled with cocoons. Soon we'll move those to safe keeping, and if all goes well, next spring 5-6 young bees should emerge from each tube.

Hoverfly or flower fly collecting pollen from alyssum

I'm paying a little closer attention to things in nature I've taken for granted, like the tiny flying insects dancing all over the alyssum. With the help of a close-up camera lens, I noticed they were marked like bees, so I snapped a few photos, did a little research, and learned something new. This little guy is a hoverfly, sometimes called a syrphid or flower fly. The hoverflies' bee-like coloration gives them some protection; people (and presumably birds) think they're aggressive and leave them alone. In fact, like native bees, they're gentle and very beneficial pollinators. In addition, their larvae (also known by that unsavory word "maggots") eat aphids and thrips, those unwanted creatures that literally suck the life out of your plants. One insect ID site says if you have these tiny flies in your garden, you can count yourself lucky! We're lucky!

Below are photos of a few other of the smaller summertime residents at Bean Hill.

A tiny grasshopper casts a big shadow

Echinacea (coneflower) and a busy bee

Milkweed community: Monarch-to-be, squash bug eggs, and milkweed bugs

A Perfect(ly) Normal Month

California Poppy

Five-five years ago this week, the first part of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in The New Yorker. Carson's work exposed the dangers of the widely-used pesticide, DDT, and gave impetus to the environmental movement and led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. As a result, our air and water got cleaner and safer. It's hard to believe that anyone would think that ensuring clean air and water is a waste of taxpayers' money, but such people exist at the highest levels of our government; the EPA is all but completely gutted now. Unless you're living under a rock (which is a very tempting thing to do these days), you know the person most responsible for destroying EPA protections, also pulled America out of participation in the Paris Climate Agreement at the beginning of this month.

Cabbage White butterfly feasting on Hidcote Lavender

First salad fixin's of the season

Relaxing in the small pond

Pond iris

The somewhat good news is that the withdrawal from the Paris agreement has, like Carson's influential book, heightened environmental consciousness and motivated organizations and individual Americans to take actions to protect the Earth and all living things. On Tuesday, June 13 at 3 P.M. EDT, the Natural Resources Defense Council will hold a teleconference briefing on how we can and will respond to the United States being pulled out of the Paris agreement. If you're interested, you can RSVP at this link NRDC Teleconference on Paris Climate Agreement. If teleconferencing isn't your thing, you might consider donating to NRDC whose lawyers defend the environment in the courts.

Hummingbird landing

As for the weather stats for May at Bean Hill, it was the first month of 2017 during which high and low temperatures were in line with the historic monthly averages, and precipitation was .95" above the historic monthly average. I'm happy to report that not only did our Mason Bees thrive (23 nesting tubes are completely filled, and several partially), I've observed a marked increase in the number of all kinds of bees. Additionally, I saw more butterflies in May than I did all of last summer.

The gardens are lush from all the rain. The heirloom peonies (now in their sixth decade!) bloomed, as did the Siberian irises, and the bright poppies. Sadly, not a single of our many bearded irises bloomed. They were the first to respond with vigorous growth during the overly warm February, and were done in by March frosts. The Killdeer and the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds returned, the Baltimore Oriole made a second visit, and the frogs became active again. Ann and I harvested strawberries and the makings of the season's first home-grown salad.

23 capped nesting tubes

These heirloom peonies have blossomed
every spring for nearly 65 years

May 2017 at Bean Hill was joyfully "normal" and exceptionally beautiful.