Angel Hunt

Phil Stevens wrote:I see this every now and then on some of my apple trees, too. I've assumed it was a sign of a healthy, vigorous tree that is rolling the dice to see if it can squeeze two crops into the season. And if it's an early variety they sometimes pull it off in the form of one or two small apples.

Just so long as it is not a sign of the tree trying to put out seed because it is in its death throes, then I am fine with it, lol. The tree looks alright otherwise, so I'll assume the same.

C. Letellier wrote:apple or crab apple? thinking maybe you are back to crab rootstock?

Some crab apples will bloom again if the blossoms frost at just the right point.  My understanding was that the frost killed the first fruit wave and the tree was basically resetting.  Will apples do the same?

I don't know about that in this instance. We did not have a harsh frost this spring, and the blooms seemed fine. It even started to produce an apple, which I was not expecting on such a young tree, but the deer ate it. But their damage was superficial, limited to branch tips; I don't think I am back to root stock.

I planted a liberty apple tree last year, and it bloomed in the spring as expected.  Now, months later, I see that it is starting to bloom again. Why would it being doing that?

The weather here has been alternating between hot and extremely hot, so it is not like there has been a cold snap to trick it into thinking it is springtime. It did get nibbled on by deer recently, and I think those flower buds formed in area of new growth following deer damage. Is that related?

Anne Miller wrote:These made there home in front of our barn door:



It is a Blue Pimpernel, Anagallis Monellii

https://permies.com/t/157111/Living-Mulch-Mediterranean-Food-Forest#1231678

That is beautiful.

Maybe you could join or start an offline club to meet people with similar values. Good luck!

It has been my intention to slowly convert my bit of land into a low-mow cottage garden and orchard, and I have been adding perennial plants and beds little by little each year. This year I decided I need to ramp things up because I am sick of spending so much time mowing. I am going to create a mandala garden in the back half of my backyard to fill with perennial plants so there will be less to mow.

I would love it if I could also have the paths within the mandala be no-mow. I'd prefer to use low growing plants to fill the paths rather than mulch or gravel that I would have buy, haul in, and continually replenish. Any suggestions for low growing, multi-season, preferably drought tolerant plants or seed mixes that don't mind being walked on? I am in southwestern Virginia, FYI.

I go car-free in a place that everyone tells me it is not possible to be car-free. Yet I've done it successfully for 2+ years. There are definitely limitations on my ability to move around, but so far those limitations have not dwarfed the significant expense of owning and maintaining a car for me to justify buying one. I currently work remotely, which helps a lot, and I was very intentional about living someplace where I could easily get around by foot or bike (analog). Almost all errands I need to run are within seven miles or less, so I can easily get by with walking or biking in most instances. Grocery shopping is no problem. There is a grocery store around the corner, another slightly nicer one that is 1.5 miles away, and some specialty health food stores that are a little farther. I enjoy walking, so I usually walk to the one that is a mile and a half away, carrying a backpack and a couple tote bags (sometimes insulated ones in the summer). Yes, it takes a little more time and effort than driving to the store, but it is worth it to me because I see it as an investment in my health and fitness. I get exercise, fresh air, sunlight, and a chance to listen to a podcast or catch up with a friend. If I want to save time, I can bike instead. I have hauled some large and heavy items as well by attaching a trailer to my bike. Very seldomly I have gotten rides from neighbors when I couldn't manage a load on my bike.

I've been able to accomplish about 90% of my wants and needs with walking, biking, and public transportation, and I think people vastly overestimate how hard it is to get around without a car. But there are some real limitations. While I can get around town easily enough, it is difficult to get out of town in this rural area to visit nearby attractions, most of which are only accessible by car. I don't enjoy biking after dark, which limits my options for socializing. But I don't have a strong desire to go out these days, and I am not into nightlife much, so it does not really bother me.

What I was not prepared for was the sense of alienation. I don't know anyone else locally who is intentionally car-free, and I think people see it as weird or tragic. Additionally, the judgment and pressure I get from family to get a car has been disappointing. They told me at the outset that it would not be possible for me to survive without a car, and I thought after showing them that I was able to do it for a couple of years that my family would concede. Instead, they have become more insistent that it is impossible to survive without a car and increased their pressure on me to buy a car. They cannot see the contentment, financial savings, environmental advantages, and health benefits that going car-free affords me. All they can see is how frustrated they believe they would be in my shoes, and so they try to project that frustration onto me.

Sometimes I think I will buy a cheap used car in the future. But whenever I think about how much of my precious time and money would have to go into maintaining a vehicle, I balk. I think car owners vastly underestimate how much of their time and money goes into owning a car.

Just as an update, I overcame my fear enough to avoid my crisis of conscience. The exterminator came today, and I decided not to have him spray outside. I could not stop thinking about how the spray might kill the lizards, which would be horrible in and of itself. But it would also be counterproductive because a waning in the lizard population will probably lead to an increase in pests. And in this extreme heat, even a limited, targeted spraying could possibly aerosolize and kill pollinators.

So I am going to continue to focus on trying to seal up the house to keep roaches from entering the living areas and pray I won't see many more. We are finally getting some rain here, so maybe with more moisture outside the roaches will wander less.

Edited to add: At one point the exterminator and I were standing outside with wasps buzzing all around us. He just stopped, looked in awe at all the wasps flying in and out of nests in and around my house, and said he has never seen so many. Even though I am kind of worried about the increasing number of wasps right at my front door, I was quite proud to receive such distinction from an experienced professional who has undoubtedly seen his share of wasps! I like to think it means my garden is becoming a blossoming ecosystem.

Christopher Weeks wrote:That's a tough situation. I lived ten years as a kid in a house with endemic roaches, so I know they're a little nasty to deal with -- leaving little brown flecks (their waste?) around. I think roach motels are non-toxic. Were I in your position, I'd probably use those while trying to work on my phobia.

I cannot tell you how much fear I've worked though already just to get to this point of being able to confront them directly and remove their supposedly dead bodies. I think I have already reached my limit for how much fear I can overcome in a year.