BlizzardNole

Got the rest of the gardens planted in the nice weather yesterday -- tropical milkweeds, lantana and titan vincas. Get out deer and rabbits, nothing for you here! Anyone have large maple trees that are struggling? I have three that seeded so heavily that they were completely covered in brown spinners that made them look like it was late November instead of late April in my yard. Then they dropped and the trees are really struggling to leaf out. It's mid-May and they are only maybe halfway leafed out. I thought multiple branches were dead but they finally have some tiny leaf buds. I guess they'll finally be fully leafed out by June. That's crazy. Anyone else seeing this?

Yesterday was such a beautiful day to get the garden planting finished. I wish we had more days like that! May looks so great on paper with avg highs starting at 71 and going to 79, but it seems like days in the 70s are rare. Case in point DCA just recorded 10 straight days below/much below average, and just like clockwork here come the 90s.

“Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!”

More frozen than we some in some winter months around here

Just had strong gusts to 40-45 with soft, pea-sized hail and some thunder, temp dropped back to upper 40s. Brrrrrrr

Oh man so JEALOUS! We have a Wegman's a mile away, but grocery chains in MontCo can only have one location each in the county that carry wine and beer and we don't have it.

Thanks to all for posting vax experiences. I get the second Moderna on May 18. I have parents and siblings in Calvert and St. Marys and none of them plan to get vaccinated.

Feels wintry out at 46 degrees. I am not liking the pattern over the next 10 days with temps 10-20 below average and frequent rains. Mothers' Day looks wet and cold. So much for dinner on the patio of one of our favorite restaurants. Oh and the obligatory where was this pattern in February

I saw on WTOP that some people in an old neighborhood with mature trees took shovelfuls of dirt and counted the nymphs, and came up with an estimate of 1 million cicadas PER ACRE. That is gonna be crazy. We'll visit family in Calvert a couple times to get away from the noise.

Probably that. Being young makes the side effects stronger due to your stronger immune system. We have older relatives that had no effects at all from shot 2. Keep us updated!

Height off the ground is fine -- one of mine is 12 feet up. Is it your first year putting them out? It took a while for them to discover my feeders the first year, but they became regular after that. Just make sure you keep the nectar fresh and they'll come around.

Today was perfect for heavy garden work including tilling and getting a bunch of plants in. Overcast all afternoon but no rain, about 70, and enough of a breeze to keep the gnats out of my eyeballs. Looks like some showers later this evening which will be nice.

Next weekend is looking troughy. Chilly Mothers' Day?

I usually get my first hummingbirds the last week of April but this year I saw one on April 12 and now have several hanging around. I am always happy when they arrive.

I've been complaining with some others on the gardening forum about huge maple trees in our yard with billions of spinners loaded in their arsenals. Well the wind has stripped them of the spinners in a day and even swept our deck clean. Free of charge.

In the 1980s in Calvert, we were in the mid-90s one day in April and had snow squalls that whitened the grass four days later. Our HS had a group of exchange students from Sicily at the time and they thought it was nuts.

It's was funny seeing everywhere 80-84 at noon already but DCA at just 75 with a breeze off that chilly river. Edit: DCA caught up quick though.

We are looking south too in about 5 years. We are just done with 6 months of dead bare trees every year. It's way too long of a dead season with very little snow anyway. Gardening notes -- got the potted fuchsias and impatiens already going on the deck with the long range looking pretty safe for no frosts or freezes. The hummingbirds have already found them. This weekend I will get an early start on planting the beds with tropical milkweed, lantana and annual vinca. Deer and rabbits need not apply -- nothing here for them.

Sun is blazing here right now. I'd like mostly cloudy today to keep the temps reasonable.

I have gotten to really hate maples. I planted three "Autumn Blaze" in our back yard in 2002 since our back deck faces the broiling WSW. I read they were medium sized and don't seed. WRONG. They are 40-50 feet and make billions of spinners. They are so covered with them now that they look like late November brownish foliage. Ugly. Probably won't be leafed out for four more weeks. I'm surprised my neighbors haven't complained.

Nice soaking rain at 0.6 and as someone said, perfect timing! We're going to Calvert to visit my parents today so I am glad the rain wasn't 12 hours later.

Nasty day at 46 degrees and rushing wind. Watch us approach 90 next Wednesday Oh and trees -- we have three maples in the back with billions of spinners, and a gigantic thornless honeylocust street tree that someone thought was a good idea with a front yard that's less than 20 feet wide. That thing will soon drop tons of tiny flowering junk that accumulates everywhere and turns into a mud-like mess when it rains. Then in fall it's billions of tiny leaves get everywhere and into everything. Wish I addressed it when we first moved in and it was small, and made it look like an "accident."

No kidding it has been great! Now up to 15 straight days of 60-plus for highs at DCA, and 26 out of the last 29 going back into March. Best spring I can remember in a long time.

Here is one of my gaskets to stop leaks and keep them wasps away

You also need a good ant moat. I got this glass one of Etsy that works really well. This feeder is on a hook right outside my window. Sometimes yellow finches will drink out of that ant moat!