April 23- Weather, Phenology, Master Gardener, Insects
Yesterday evening we had a series of rainshowers, accompanied by lightning and thunder. In our Ioway tribe, the first time we hear Thunder, it is the New Year. The New Year is when the green plants are growing and flowering. Now it is time to stop telling the sacred stories for the snakes are coming out of their winter dens. The snakes protect the sacred places and the sacred stories, and they bite the transgressor.
The lilac bushes are going through bud burst, when the leaves spread out from the buds. Lilac leaves are used as tea when you have a fever. The dandelion leaves are tasty, pretty large and not too bitter (but isn't medicine always a little bitter?). I try and eat a handful every day. They are good for blood pressure, joints, and losing weight. A spring tonic for the ailments of getting old. I have violets around the house and nibble on those too. The box elder flowers are also out.
Last night I continued with the fifth week of the Master Gardener program (Level I). I posted the first class about a month ago, but the material is so dense and abundant, it got to be too much to post in detail every week. Through last night, we have covered:
Soils, Nutrients and Fertilizers (Parts 1-2)
Plant Growth and Development (Parts 1-2)
Herbaceous Annuals
Herbaceous Perennials
Growing Vegetables (Parts 1-2)
Integrated Pest Management (weeds, diseases, insects)
Last night's guest speaker was the state agricultural Entomologist (bug guy). This year is going to be bonkers for grasshoppers. If you are living in former range country, like out in the Helena Valley, you had better try any grasshopper controls before too long. As in, before the lilacs' flowering stops (it hasn't yet started).
Learned some other interesting bits about insects I didn't know, like the fact that pine beetles emerge and fly off to new trees in about the second week of August.
I chatted with the entomologist a little before class and looked at his collection of insects. (PS. Not all insects are bugs; bugs are only one class of insects). I mentioned that in 10th grade Biology we had to make a mounted insect collection in the fall (no I don't still have it). I got most of mine (about 50 different kinds) from the backyard above-ground pool we had back then.
The entomologist said they don't make collections anymore, not schools for the most part, and definitely not college level classes. In fact, they don't have an entomology department here in Montana anymore. They closed it down. Seems the old natural history type paradigm is out of favor, and all the "bug guys" are either shuttled into commercial agriculture or into genetics.
Apparently, the new entomologists can tell you the enzymes, pathogens and genetic codes in the gut of a beetle....but there aren't that many "biologists" who can actually identify living insects in the field anymore.
The lilac bushes are going through bud burst, when the leaves spread out from the buds. Lilac leaves are used as tea when you have a fever. The dandelion leaves are tasty, pretty large and not too bitter (but isn't medicine always a little bitter?). I try and eat a handful every day. They are good for blood pressure, joints, and losing weight. A spring tonic for the ailments of getting old. I have violets around the house and nibble on those too. The box elder flowers are also out.
Last night I continued with the fifth week of the Master Gardener program (Level I). I posted the first class about a month ago, but the material is so dense and abundant, it got to be too much to post in detail every week. Through last night, we have covered:
Soils, Nutrients and Fertilizers (Parts 1-2)
Plant Growth and Development (Parts 1-2)
Herbaceous Annuals
Herbaceous Perennials
Growing Vegetables (Parts 1-2)
Integrated Pest Management (weeds, diseases, insects)
Last night's guest speaker was the state agricultural Entomologist (bug guy). This year is going to be bonkers for grasshoppers. If you are living in former range country, like out in the Helena Valley, you had better try any grasshopper controls before too long. As in, before the lilacs' flowering stops (it hasn't yet started).
Learned some other interesting bits about insects I didn't know, like the fact that pine beetles emerge and fly off to new trees in about the second week of August.
I chatted with the entomologist a little before class and looked at his collection of insects. (PS. Not all insects are bugs; bugs are only one class of insects). I mentioned that in 10th grade Biology we had to make a mounted insect collection in the fall (no I don't still have it). I got most of mine (about 50 different kinds) from the backyard above-ground pool we had back then.
The entomologist said they don't make collections anymore, not schools for the most part, and definitely not college level classes. In fact, they don't have an entomology department here in Montana anymore. They closed it down. Seems the old natural history type paradigm is out of favor, and all the "bug guys" are either shuttled into commercial agriculture or into genetics.
Apparently, the new entomologists can tell you the enzymes, pathogens and genetic codes in the gut of a beetle....but there aren't that many "biologists" who can actually identify living insects in the field anymore.