Remember February? When I looked back at that post, the first sentence was “I don’t know what they’re gong to call what happened this week, but “It snowed,” isn’t going to be enough.”
Well, we’re calling it “February,” as in: “Remember February?” when we might be searching to buy heavier coats than we used to wear. Or: “Oh, yeah, February!” when we’re thinking about beginning to stock up on non-perishables to store in cabinets and pantries. Or: “Hmmm. February. Should we go ahead and try to find some place to purchase some firewood?”
And some folks have spent the spring and summer restructuring yards and gardens, after perennial flowers, shrubs, and even full-grown trees perished in FEBRUARY!
At our house, we came out pretty well.
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- The holly bushes, planted by my dad, front and back, look exactly like they did all last summer/fall/winter/and this summer, going into fall.
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- The ferns, also planted by my dad, always die back at the beginning of winter, and pop back up in the spring, as they did, again, this year.
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- The dwarf pomegranate and the lantana, that I planted, also came back, as did
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- the pink sedum, which is now attracting bees.
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- While the pink Turks Caps emerged all sturdy and tall, the red ones never showed up. I had to go and purchase some more of them. They seem scrawny next to their pink sisters, but I am hoping they will come into their own.
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- Everything in the small herb garden did fine, except whatever was in the lower right-hand corner that I no longer remember. Bee Balm is in there now.
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- The Malabar spinach was REALLY slow about coming up. By this time last year, I think the trellis was full. Better luck next year.
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- And the daisies, after having been here for YEARS, are still plugging away. After blooming, they rest on their leaves, and will show up again next spring.
The Good, Bad, and the Ugly
Back in May, I mentioned a tree that I’d had to treat because it had big, brown spots on the leaves. I spoke to a nursery employee who sold me these little iron pellets, and said sprinkle them around the tree, walking in a circle at the edge of the leaves’ distance from its trunk. Then, water it in. It’s working. The tree’s leaves are a beautiful yellow-green and don’t have spots any more. I think it’s a Pin Oak. It’s in the smaller area of the yard on the left-hand side of the driveway. In the larger part of the front yard, there’s a Red Oak.
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- This tree is a red oak. It’s been growing for several years in the middle of the front yard. I don’t know when my dad planted it, but it is at least the third and maybe fourth tree in this space. It hasn’t seemed to have been damaged by FEBRUARY. It leafed out, just like always.
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- This is the Pin Oak. Also planted, at some time, by my Dad. Both these trees leafed out, at pretty much the usual time, after the big FEBRUARY freeze. We are fortunate.
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- This is the pecan tree in our back yard. It’s a tree my dad planted in 1961. It leafed out fine, after FEBRUARY. But, it’s been dropping leaves, a few at a time, all summer. I don’t know whether to be worried or not. But, I’ve noticed that it’s putting out new, bright green leaves, as though it’s thinking “I feel better now!” (I looked up the usual longevity of a pecan tree: on average 300 years, but possibly much longer..)
Other nearby trees did not fare so well.
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- This is the tree across the street from us. It started putting out leaves pretty early in March. It put out an extreme amount of leaves, but mostly in the inner limbs of the tree. You can see the bare ends of the limbs. I’m interested to see what it does next spring.
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- This is my neighbor’s tree that’s growing in the space between our houses. This tree is putting out leaves along the trunk of the tree, trying hard to stay alive, it seems.
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- This is the whole of that tree. There are some leaves growing along some of the branches, but not growing in a normal way. I don’t know what the furture will be for this tree.
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- And this is the tree in my neighbor’s front yard. (The leaves you see at the top of the photo aren’t on this tree. They’re leaves from my tree, in the side yard. This tree is almost completely bare. It’s put out a few small branches with leaves, but, after a while, they fall off. You can see one at the base of he tree. This is a great big tree, and I think it’s one that was planted when all these houses were new. It’s a tree from my childhood.
“Rain and snow fall from the sky. But they don’t return without watering the earth
that produces seeds to plant and grain to eat.
That’s how it is with my words. They don’t return to me without doing everything I send them to do.”
Isaiah 55:10-11 (Contemporary English Version)