After the frosts in the last half of April, 2020, the leaves of many trees showed damage as the following chestnut trees.
The leaves on the Carpathian walnut seedlings turned black after the frosty nights as in this photo.
But this black walnut seedling has yet to wake up.
Spring time arrives with a variety of colors as in the following pictures.
After a rather warm Winter during which the low temperature was seven degrees Fahrenheit the Easter flowers arrived in early February in 2020 which was one month earlier than in 2019.
In 2019 they arrived in early March
The paw paw trees are covered with blooms this year. Even trees with small diameter trunks have more blooms than they can possibly produce fruit. If only ten percent of the blooms produce fruit, there would be more fruit than in any of the previous seven years. The following pictures show the mass of purple blooms which are about one inch in diameter.
And, the first tick of Spring arrived on April 11, can Summer be far behind?
The early daffodils peeked out above ground the first days of March and survived the snowfall that occurred few days later.
After the snow melted they continued to grow.
Then, in late March they bloomed!
Even after the dearth of April showers there are some May flowers. Rain during the cold month of April was less than one inch, but, it has rained almost six inches in May.
Here are some beautiful May flowers.
On February 28 the first greenery of flower leaves poked up above the leaf mulch along the fence line. Then on March 15 the first Easter flower bloomed.
And many of its neighbors were about to bloom.
Only a few days later on March 18 that single flower had lots of company.
Many of the other flowers along the fence are awake and growing.
The previous posting on weeds showed weeds blooming in Summer and Fall. This posting shows weeds blooming early in the year – March, April, and May.
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The June beetles (June bugs) arrived in late April this year. During the daytime they burrow down under ground and then come out at night to eat my pecan trees. As you can see in the following two pictures they tend to attack the top shoots of the pecan trees.
Last Fall after transplanting pecan trees from pots into the field, I sowed cereal rye around the trees. The following picture shows the rye at about five feet high and towering over the four foot high fence ring that surrounds the small tree. Those trees were not affected by the June beetles. I guess the beetles look for tall trees/plants to attack.
In May, 2015, the beetles did major damage to many of the young pecan trees that I had planted the previous Fall – they completely defoliated some of the small trees. Those trees did survive and grew back leaves but their growth has been slow. Trying to prune the affected trees to a central leader in 2015 was practically impossible. But, in 2016, there was very minor damage by the June bugs. This year they are back and attacking pecan trees. This on year/off year cycle fits the pattern noted by some writers. One interesting item to note is that in May, 2016, that same field had thousands of fire flies at night and there were some dead beetle shells seen in the daytime. The weather has been cooler this year and when the temperature is 50 degrees or below the fire files do not fly around at night.
One method I am considering to combat the beetles involves useing ducks and lights. By placing a light out in the field at night with a pool of water under it and some ducks near by, the beetles might come to the light and fall down into the water to make soup for the ducks. But, it would be necessary to prevent the owls and critters from crashing the party. Although chickens go to bed a sundown, ducks can party all night long.
There is one group of easter flowers that always bloom a week or two before the others. This year the first blooms came out on February 28, 2017, as the following photo shows. Although I thought that was early, I found a picture of the same flowers from last year that was dated March 7, 2016.
And, as the following photo shows the elderberries are also leafing out.
