May 13-19, 2019

And wide around, the marriage of the plants

Is sweetly solemnized. Then flows amain

The surge of summer’s beauty; dell and crag,

Hollow and lake, hillside and pine arcade,

Are touched with genius.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Musketaquid”

The Golden Buttercup Moon reaches perigee (its position closest to Earth) at 4:53 p.m. on May 13. After that, it waxes throughout the week, becoming full on May 18 at 4:11 p.m. Rising in the evening and setting in the morning, this moon favors angling and snacking as it passes above the region.

Weather trends

High temperatures are usually above 60 degrees the week ahead, with the chances of 70s or better rising to 70 percent – a 10 percent increase over last week’s chances. A high in the 50s occurs rarely, but if it does appear, it is typically on May 21 and 24.

Chances of frost are usually low, but tender plants are in some danger after the passage of the month’s fourth cold front on May 15 and fifth cold front on May 20, especially at full moon. May 18-19 and 22 are the wettest days in the period.

The natural calendar

May 13: All the clovers come into bloom, along with the small black medic, purple vetch, and the weedy yellow and white sweet clover, in all but the northernmost states. When the clovers bloom, flea season begins for dogs, cats, goats, cattle, horses, and sheep.

May 14: Ragweed has grown 2 feet tall, crickets sing, and cow vetch, wild parsnips, poison hemlock, angelica, motherwort, wild roses, locusts, blackberries, and yarrow flower. The last of the leaves come out for summer.

In the salt marshes of the South, fiddler crabs emerge from their tunnels in the creeks and estuaries.

May 15: When azaleas lose their petals, daisies and the first clematis and the first cinquefoil open all the way, the first strawberry ripens, and the first swallowtail butterflies visit the star of Bethlehem and bleeding hearts. The last quince flowers fall and lilacs decay.

May 16: Multiflora roses and wild raspberries are budding. Black walnuts and oaks become the major sources of pollen. Deep red ginger has replaced the toad trillium close to the ground, around the fingers of white sedum.

May 17: Cedar waxwings migrate up the rivers as the last buckeye flowers fall. Half the goslings are bigger than galoshes. When the first firefly glows in the lawn, flea beetles come feeding in the vegetable garden.

May 18: The moon’s position today (powerful perigee closest to Earth) increases the likelihood of turbulent weather. Livestock may be more restless, children more obstreperous, and the infirm more uncomfortable.

May 19: The second-last week of late spring is honeysuckle week. Pink and violet sweet rockets and the ubiquitous fleabane reach full bloom, too. Locusts and wild cherries are in flower. Daisies, columbines, lupines, scarlet pyrethrums, and orange poppies take over the dooryards.

Field and garden

In the garden, remove seedpods from daffodils and tulips. The first zucchini ripens and elderberries start to bloom. Consider adding to your lily collection now or transplanting groups of lilies that have become too thick.

In an average spring, strawberry growers have been harvesting their berries all week. Just as all the corn gets planted, the armyworms and corn borers go to work. They appear in fields throughout the country this month.

Haying ordinarily has begun throughout the southern counties of the region.

The major commercial planting time for cantaloupes and cucumbers has begun. Home gardeners plant their own cucumbers and cantaloupes, too. Most of the commercial potatoes and processing tomatoes have been planted by this date – and all tomatoes for home use should be in the ground, as well.

In the countdown to summer, it is:

•One week until the first orange daylilies blossom

•Two weeks until roses flower

•Three weeks until the first mulberries are sweet for picking and cottonwood cotton drifts in the wind

•Four weeks until wild black raspberries ripen

•Five weeks until fledgling robins peep in the bushes and fireflies mate in the night

•Six weeks until cicadas chant in the hot and humid days

•Seven weeks until thistles turn to down

•Eight weeks until sycamore bark starts to fall, marking the center of deep summer

•Nine weeks to the season of singing crickets and katydids after dark

•10 weeks until ragweed pollen floats in the wind

Best of the Almanac

Boss to the Rescue

By Ann Witte

Gaelyn Glen Farm, Neb.

Beardies are fairly soft-natured sheep dogs, yet their bravery surfaces when it is needed. Boss was one of those typical Beardies who proved his courage in many ways, but in one particular way for me.

I had put our four-horned Jacob ram – a hateful and nasty ram, at that – in with three wethers so he had some company. One day I noticed that one of the wethers had a messy rear that had dried, thus needing to be trimmed off. The sheep had gone behind the shed in a 3- to 4-foot-wide alleyway to stay in the shade.

As usual, I had Boss along to help with all the sheep work for the day. Without thinking at all, I went into that narrow area to get the wether; Boss tagged along. Before I knew it, the ram had appeared and, lowering his head, rushed directly at me.

The next thing happened faster than reading will tell. Boss jumped ahead of me to stop the ram; he took the hard blow that was intended for me. The dog cried out but still managed to bite the ram, which backed the sheep off.

A quick trip to the vet and a couple X-rays later, Boss was said to have three broken ribs and a bruised heart and lung. He spent the next six weeks in a rib wrap – there is no way to cast ribs – but he insisted on accompanying me after four weeks, so we went together.

I didn't have him do much work; I doubt he cared. Being a dark grey and nearly markings-less Beardie, the white rib wrap sure was immediately obvious, but his courage was not.