Outdoor work was completed in December after the neighbors’ trees dropped their leaves. Noted in email exchange with Raimund, high school friend and German foreign exchange student, the cold weather and snow forecast for Christmas Day. Shoveling five inches of snow in below zero temperatures is not the best way to celebrate a Holiday but needed to occur. January brought a number of mild, overcast, sometimes rainy days mixed with seasonable temperatures. First Robin, noted 1-30, ate mealworms voraciously. February was similar but with a few more colder days. Nonetheless, was able to get to Mc Coy park and hit off the Tee four times ahead of April senior softball practice. The first blooming Snow Drop 2-15. Trillium and Wood Poppies coming up in elevated wash stands as was Bleeding Heart, Blue Bells, and Hellebore in the wash tubs by the house. Hoping for blooms coinciding with emergence of Mason Bees in their house stored in my garage to protect them from the weather. On mild days, was able to use rainwater from catch pots to water the planters in the garage
Mild, overcast, wet days continued but were now more seasonal. However, the short cold spells in between, played havoc with the blooming of my early Spring flowers in March. Only one Hellebore and Bleeding Heart flower on multiple plants. Trillium died before blooming and had to be replaced. Wood Poppies bloomed later than usual. However, flowers in the elevated wood planter had their best year. Bishop’s Cap grew and seasonally bloomed, followed shortly by Bleeding Heart, Jack Frost, and Canadian Wild Ginger, later in the Spring. Blue Bells in the garden in bloom starting 3-21. With seasonably warm temperatures, I noted evidence of the emergence of the Mason Bees, house still in the garage, on 4-3, a bit earlier than usual. However, I did not see an actual bee until 4-9. This prompted a trip to the nursery for blooming flowers for the bees, as all well intentioned, previous attempts to sustain them had failed, due to the weather. Bugloss seemed to be my most popular selection. The weather seemed to play havoc with the Mason Bees this year, as well. In the past, I had worked outside while one or two filled holes in the Mason Bee house over the course of a couple weeks without much interruption. In this case, cold wet weather halted activity which didn’t seem to pick back up when it became nicer. Then, to my surprise, I would see another Mason Bee flying around, just as I was about to give up hope. This pattern repeated an additional two times, sometimes with the emergence of new Mason Bess from the house. Ended up with the usual number of holes filled in the house for Spring of 2024. I saw a White Butterfly 4-12. While hitting at Mc Coy park, saw honeybees on clover, 4-19 and bumblebees, 4-21. Back home, some kind of bee or flower fly on Jack Frost 4-20. Pots of flowers were brought from the garage to the front 4-11, but many of the plants were old and had seen their better days, needing to be replaced. Some were overgrown with a variety of plants, none of which were doing well. With some seventy degree days in May, it was time for more trips to the nursery. The ivy on the front porch needed to be trimmed on 5-3, and I cleaned up seed pods from the Magnolia that never really flowered and whose leaves arrived and matured later than normal. 5-19 got a glimpse of what I thought was a honey bee, but it turned out to be a Wool Carder. They had been prevalent during the previous Fall, and I was surprised to see one so early. There were some native plants in bloom, but none seemed to be to their liking. This took me by surprise, and references stated the same. They left after about a week of dissatisfaction. A black Carpenter Bee on Pincushions 5-21. First Honeybee on Salvia in the garden 5-28. A small worker Bumblebee and a wasp of some sort buzzing the garden 5-29. Summer was about to begin.
