Monday dawned bright and clear, with a whisper of frost. Stilt grass is sprouting. The autumn olive have small leaves creating a blue green haze in the woods. I would prefer to see the yellow green glow of spice bush (Lindera benzoin) flowers. I tried some of the flowers while doing my Monday mid-work walk. Mainly bitter? Nothing to inspire the level of rhapsody that twigs, leaves, and berries earn.
Tuesday greeted me with 28°F on the thermometer, which was not in the bleeping forecast. I don't know if i could have done anything about the saucer magnolia's satiny magenta flowers (petals of which i have been dicing and scattering on my lunches, the hint of ginger not nearly as powerful as the hit of garnishing color). The blueberries, though: "Flowers distinctly separated with corollas unexpanded and closed are killed at 28 F. Fully opened flowers are damaged at 29 F." I don't think the flowers had gotten along that far, although i was worried about April when temperatures like this are just as likely.
I hope the temps lead the tulip poplars to stay from leafing out.
The weekend work in the yard exhausted me, making me feel like just five years ago i was much more nimble. I got the meadow cut back a great deal. Towering plumes and starbursts of dried flowers cut back to a foot or so -- stalks left for bees. One Chineese mantid egg case found and destroyed as urged by the fans of pollinators and hummingbirds. Mowed areas. This exposed the spring flush of leaves from the various asters and sunflowers and bee balm. I don't know if i can go after the expanding colony of native but poisonous and thorny Solanum carolinense, but having the stalks cleared will make mechanical control possible. I saw lingering fruits on dried thorny branches entangled in the flower stalks. More seeds. Fie.
I also mowed, trimmed and chipped: all the fresh cut wood was finally reduced by the end of Monday week 12. The old "greenhouse" site is still a tangle of spring weeds, but the rest of the foundation has been cleared.
I picked lots of onions, giving big bundles to my sister and father. I picked some big bundles of sochan for myself, and ate it for lunch multiple times. Sochan is often advocated as going well with pork, venison bacon, or other strong flavors. One meal of sauteed sochan and onion green tops i dumped in a tin of King Oscar sardines -- and that worked quite nicely. I note that as soon as the sochan started up with the onion greens, i have plenty of spring greens. Yay for robust perennial vegetables. The sorrel has survived neglect as well. No sign of any chicory, although having left fallow stilt grass and gladiola stalks tangled with the tall chicory stalks wouldn't encourage chicory getting established before the cursed stilt grass.
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