Thursday, 7:30 AM. 39 degrees, wind E, light to calm, channel smooth. The barometer is up, predicting sunny skies. At present skies are partly cloudy. An east wind will keep us cooler than normal as long as it persists.Forget-me-nots and marsh marigolds are blooming in the ditches, and violets and pussytoes in the lawns. The oaks are finally leafing out. The Amelanchiers (Juneberries) are ready to bloom, the first of our more ornamental trees to do so.
There has been commercial spraying for dandelions on some properties and on the park down the road, and the noxious smell of 2,4-D permeates the air. I prefer to live with the dandelions, which, if we used them in salads and to make wine would be considered, as they are in Europe, a valuable plant (they were brought here by settlers because they were considered a pretty and useful reminder of home). Spraying lawns for these “weeds” also kills the violets, hawkweed, pussytoes, ajuga and a lot of other pretty and interesting plants. Some of the most attractive lawns I have ever seen have contained all these plants and one of the most beautiful was full of creeping Charlie, its tiny flowers creating a fine blue mist over a large tree studded expanse. Grass and “weeds” can coexist if sensibly managed, to the benefit of both esthetics and the environment. More on this subject at some future time.
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