Rains finally arrived
After waiting for rain without a drop throughout February, our plants seem happier now that we have had two days of a persistent gentle rain followed by showers today. This was good timing to wash in the fertilizer that Phil spread at the base of all the apricot trees. Their basins were already showing mud cracks at the surface.
Two weeks ago, we noticed that our Emerald carpet manzanita in the pollinator plot was looking dry with brownish reddish leaves. When I used a moisture meter to probe around each of the native plants, the manzanita was dry in comparison to all the others. The other plants had readings in the middle of the moisture meter, even though I have not watered them for 3 weeks.
Last week, I dug up the manzanita and confirmed that the root ball was so dense and hydrophobic that no water was penetrating. So I dug the hole bigger and filled it with water. The adobe clay is so dense that the water did not percolate. I mixed the adobe and compost better, then made a mound in the center of the water. After pulling apart the roots in quarter sections, I spread the roots over the mud, filled in and watered again. I made a little basin so that I can fill it with water to better soak the roots. And then the rains came!
On March 12, the Santa Clara Watercolor Society enjoyed painting in the orchard and garden of the J.W. Smith house. Some photos of art in action are on the third page of the Los Altos Town Crier:
https://www.losaltosonline.com/images/a_digital_edition/2020/LATC_03_18_20.pdf
As you can see, the apricot blossoms are past prime and the leaves are budding out. I posted a few photos of these details on observations for this iNaturalist project. The leaves are very serrated when they are young. I was also interested in seeing that the young saplings planted last year were the first to bloom and to leaf. The new saplings planted last month are starting to put out a few leaves.
The bees are working the flowers. However, they are collecting pollen, not nectar. Their pollen baskets were full!
