Cicadas and more, spring 2021

I love perennials. Nothing much to do except enjoy their beauty year after year. Azalea and irises.

All is not art. Spring on the ninety acres has arrived and so has the work.

This beautiful red/pink rhododendron is right outside our kitchen breakfast nook.

The past several weeks have been devoted to getting my big show up and running. Framing and delivering, shipping, some marketing, some public events. Exciting but exhausting.

Now, to tackle my three page list of things to do this spring. Yes, I still make extensive lists for almost everything. It just relieves my brain from having to remember everything.

We’ve had beautiful, rain-free weather this past week. A little on the chilly side but make hay, etc. etc. Weeding the flowerbeds. Seems as if we are beset by bedstraw this year. Or as I like one of its other common names sticky willie. Grrrrrrrrrrr. I hate this stuff.

A few of several pots of plants on the patio. Full sun. My favorite Provence memory.

Flowers waiting to be transplanted to pots. A couple of perennials, too.

Bringing out all my pots, mixing large batches of soil – potting soil, manure, peat. Planting about thirty of them for sun, shade, large, small. Oh, my back but I just divide the job up to smaller pieces.

Then a big push on to get the main garden planted. It’s a serious garden of about 25 x 40 feet. The sweet corn was planted a few weeks ago and is making a good showing. The peas finally came up in the spring garden (a whole different garden area), and we have been eating fresh lettuce for several weeks. The asparagus patch is nearly done for the year.

Just a small part of the garden. I planted fifteen various tomato plants and about the same number of peppers. Many varieties. PLUS….we have more in the small spring garden. I remember one year planting 64 tomato plants! Last time I did that.

Yesterday meant planting tomatoes, peppers, beans, eggplant, herbs, more corn, and lots of flowers for cutting. It’s not very interesting at this point but in a few weeks, it should really start growing.

So, let’s talk about cicadas. It’s the widely touted seventeen year emergence. And they’re HERE! At least emerging. They do not have mouths or stingers so they’re harmless to handle. They feel kinda creepy as they crawl on you with their little claws.

A cicada emerging. I’m finding these in the grass, the flowerbeds, just about everywhere outside.

Slightly creepy feeling, this is what the cicadas look like when they first shed their brown shells. It will attach itself to something – twig, trees, side of house – while it pumps up it’s wings, then takes off to find a mate for a day. No mouths or stingers.

A cicada hanging on its discarded shell which it attached to a plant. After it pumps up its wings, it changes color and then flies off.

Holes in the ground from the emerging brood. I’ve actually observed a flicker listening and diving for the emerging beasties.

I remember the last time they were here, the air was a cacophony of a high pitched sound, like something you might hear on an old sci-fi movie. I guess we’ll deal with it or stay inside. And remember, the birds and especially our chickens love these things and go after them like candy.

I’ll pass.