END DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!!!

Purpurea witch hazel with incredibly fantastic fall colors- early winter flowers on a native tree/shrub. Discovered this attribute yesterday against a flawless sky.

I just woke up- it’s sunday morning and the sun looks like it’s been up for HOURS. What a total waste because this afternoon around four thirty it’s going to be DARK. DEPRESSING. SAD! Why do they waste sunlight before people get out of bed? This time of year, I slither into bed a few hours after dark which seems like a pretty pitiful lifestyle! It’s time to get rid of this STUPID practice that only seems to benefit power companies and early morning construction crews.

I’m continually impressed with our sod quality. I’ve just gotta say that you just CANNOT find sod grown under better conditions than our Yankee Stadium supplier. After it’s delivered to us, NOBODY takes better care of it than we do. The sod is two years old, 90%bluegrass, 10% fescue. It’s unrolled within a few hours of delivery and after that treated with love and respect. At places like Home Depot, you better get it immediately after it’s delivered or don’t buy it. It generates its own heat and starts to decompose immediately. I’m astounded what those places charge for it considering they never roll it out, water it, or do anything to it at all.

Fall planting occurs until the ground is frozen, which may never happen thanks to global warming (a disturbing fact laughed at by tRUMP), or could happen next month, one never knows. What I DO KNOW, though, is planting any time this side of Christmas is better than spring planting when blazing summer droughts results in high watering and post-installation labor. Our industry has done a POOR JOB of getting this point across. Just know that the above is a fact you can bank on. Do all horticultural things in the FALL, not in spring. You’ll thank me later.

This nest is small because I moved the tree it was in to keep people from getting attacked. The bees outside the nest at that moment in Time never knew where I moved their home. The nest was never really a viable community again.

I carefully tapped the tree to see if anyone was home over a period of weeks and didn’t cut it out of the tree until I was sure I wasn’t going to “bee” attacked.

Did you ever get to inspect a white face hornets nest? Bet not. They are a nasty insect to encounter in a dark alley yet they are an incredibly complex and important insect. Their life cycle ends with the first few freezes and then (and ONLY then) can one inspect the pure genius of their construction industry. They chew trees and make paper out of the cellulose from which their basketball-sized nests are made of. There are air conditioning vents throughout, with nurseries for raising offspring, living quarters, maintenance shops, etc.

They eat a broad array of insects for which they never get any credit. When threatened, they act as one- fearlessly attacking aggressors hundreds of thousands times bigger than they are. I know this for a fact. I would always destroy these nests every time I found them. It was FUN. Then I grew up and saw them for what they really are, and my transition from a stupid ignorant human was complete.

If someone like me can turn the corner from stupid to more aware, so can (and should) you.

See junior? He is either dead or in a suspended state. You can inspect the genius of the construction techniques used by these industrious insects. Different bees, different mouthfuls, different colors, teentsy breathing holes for air conditioning.

Humans SUCK. Period. We are quickly eradicating most other forms of life on this planet, and we aren’t doing a god damned thing about it. Most disturbing is that from what I can tell, people JUST DONT CARE. Most people don’t even know!

Not fun facts:

American native insect populations have plummeted to 25% of what they were in 1970 (ramifications of this? If you do not know, shame on you).

German insect populations are down 90% (home to Bayer chemical company). Boycott Bayer chemical company-Satan of the planet’s environments.!

North American bird populations have been ERADICATED to the tune of three BILLION birds. Who cares?

WHO THE HELL CARES, as long as we have a good economy, right? As long as we see football on weekends, and our kids are doing well in school.

Its like we live in this fantastic parallel universe right next to the universe where our own destruction is playing out one invisible extinction at a time. We are placated by the nonsensical in our lives, as the truly important drama is playing out right there for all to see and be ignored. We have no time left to do anything at all- it’s now or never. These organisms are the tip of the iceberg- indicator species. When their numbers reach the tipping point, it’s over for us too.

Funny how the corrupt tRUMP administration is deregulating environmental regulations at a time when we need to be doing the OPPOSITE.

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Global warming induced erosion in RI. What we gonna do about this?

Columnar ginkgo trees expressing their glee at the arrival of cooler weather.

Three inches of rain this week toppled this amsonia over two days ago but it still shines.

I HATE mums in fall- sick of them. The varieties they use now are grown for their fullness but they AIN’T hardy- wont regrow next spring, so WHATS THE POINT? I know what the point is- to color up your yard, but for me I like plants that last decades, not weeks. If I can never sell them again, fine by me.

The plant in the photo is a thirty year old “amsonia hubrectii” that Junebug planted there to show people what it does during the year. It’s common name is blue star but it should be named after it’s golden school bus yellow fall color instead.

This plant never gets water, food, or any sort of love ever- never has. It endures stress, drought, neglect with no complaints, and performs like clockwork each and every year.

The gentlest breezes makes this plant look like it’s on the bottom of the seabed, waving gently back and forth moving as if with the tides.

Deer proof, colorful, looks pruned when never pruned, soft like moss to the touch- a more trouble-free perennial you will never meet. Nobody owns these, which makes them a unique addition to your yard.

WHO NEEDS MUMS? Not me, that’s for sure.