Last week (April 21) I was at the top of the hill watering the blueberries when I saw the busy bumblebees and honey bees.
This year I added sulfur powder to lower the ph and also Starbuck coffee grounds and I am hoping for an even better blueberry yield.
I mentioned to my neighbor a Southern saying that came my way – don’t plant before tax day (April 15) and he replied that where we live which is in the foothills of Appalachia the last cold is when the blackberries flower. And he was right – after tax day we had a cold shiver and my figs were slightly damaged.
And here is a blackberry in flower.
My bees love the turnip flowers which I have growing everywhere.
And crimson clover, which I am loathe to cut down.
And a fragrant invasive honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) which appears along the edges of the adjacent woods.
The spittlebug is also hard at work.
And I have my annual chore of cutting down the pine saplings and wild trees which compete with my orchard and vines on the hill side.
And I must continue spraying the pear and apple fruitlets with kaolin clay (Surround) a new measure I have adopted this year to counter the pests which tunnel into my apples.