Friday - 09/24/2021 — Look who came to visit the Sweet Autumn Clematis! There were three or four of these big yellow-striped critters harvesting pollen and nectar when I went out to the mailbox a few mornings ago.
Honeybees, too. But I didn’t see any bumblebees. Maybe the individual blossoms are too delicate for those heavy bumbling bodies.
Back in Vermont when I had a big vegetable garden, this was the time of year when, just like the bees and wasps, I spent a lot of effort putting up produce for the upcoming winter. We never much worried about blizzards because the pantry was filled with jars (like lots of tomatoes) and the freezer filled with individually labeled packets (like lots of berries). Brussels Sprouts need to freeze to reach their best taste, so we’d leave those on the stems and wade through snowdrifts to pick them at their best.
I guess I’ve gotten lazy, which is something these wasps don’t have the option to do. No garden anymore. There’s a Publix within two miles of my house, and a Sprouts just opened about a mile and a half from here, so other than bag after bag of frozen blueberries, I don’t fiddle much with canning, freezing, or otherwise preparing for the onset of winter. Of course, winter here in Georgia is NOTHING like winter in Vermont.
What (if anything) do you do to get ready for the cold?
