permaculture

["Eugene Monaco" <efmonaco@comcast.net>]

Here in E. Tennessee many trees appear to have recovered, having put out
another set of leaves, mostly, but there are casualties.  The Carolina and
green ashes looked bleak for a while but recovered nicely. Same with the
black walnuts.  A number of the trees: oaks, figs, put out new leaves
starting from the ground up; you could really see the progression.  The figs
haven't put out new leaves at the very tops and ends of the branches, I'm
guessing due to lack of rain.  An old timer told me that the trees need lots
of water to put out leaves as the water pushes the leaves out.
We're now in a drought and that is starting to put the kibosh on the
recovery.  I've watered some but can't get to everything.  The oaks put out
another set of catkins so maybe there will be acorns.  
All fruit trees have no fruit: plums, apples, pears, cherries, peaches.  The
paw paws are too young to tell but they did put out new leaves and look
good.  I lost 2 of my 4 fig trees, so far they have put out no leaves while
the other did.  The mimosas still look bleak (they took it hard here too)
but I'm starting to see just a pinch of a few buds; without the rain, they
may not continue.  The blackberries put out flowers, which the bees were all
over, and now have a healthy amount of fruit.  
The raspberries don't look so good.  They lost maybe 40% of their leaves and
the rest stayed on.  Some new leaves have come out but so far no flowers
although there are a few (just a few) buds.  Normally, they are a little
ahead of the blackberries; maybe they were and took more of a beating.  
The tulip poplars, which are the main event for the bees, did nothing for a
while but finally put out new leaves; but no flowers and no nectar.  I never
saw any flowers on them before the freeze, but my neighbor said he saw them
on his.  So this is going to be tough on the bees.  Fortunately there is a
good amount of clover this year and they are living on that.
All in all, things have survived but seem a little stressed.  The drought
has me worried.

Gene Monaco
Knoxville, TN  37920