Did you know that you can tell the temperature by listening to the crickets and katydids chirping at night?

In 1897, A tufts professor named A.E. Dolbear published a paper showing that the rate of chirping of crickets and katydids varies with changes in temperature. His math equations for this phenomena became known as Dolbears law. Interestingly enough, it is thought he derived much of his data from a woman named Margarette W. Brooks who in 1881 published a report titled,  “Influence of temperature on the chirp of the cricket” in Popular Science Monthly.

Board member and volunteer gardener Mary Anne Spradlin, brought in a Fork tailed Bush Katydid for ID this week and it got me thinking about how the night time temperatures are dropping and while there is perhaps a bit more urgency in the crickets and Katydids chirps with the advancing of the season, the rate at which they are chirping is certainly slowing down in the evenings.

In case you are laying awake at night and want to factor in the temperature by counting the chirps outside your bedroom window, here is the equation:

T = 60+[(N-19)/3]

N being the number of chirps in a minute

T being the temperature

Scudderia furcata, Fork Tailed Bush Katydid, found in the Gaiety Neighborhood.

Welcome to the first day of Autumn. The open garden season has come to an end at Gaiety Hollow. The days will soon begin to shorten and the flowers to fade as Old Man Winter gets ready to make his entrance. This is the time of year when we start to lose daylight at a rapid pace, with daylight decreasing by approximately 3 minutes each day as we head towards the holiday season. Some great flowers are still hanging on in the garden, with several spurred into renewed life by the cooler nighttime temperatures.

Angelonia and Margueritte Daisy’s

Chinese Aster are a great late summer bloomer.

Verbena, Salvia and Mum’s will keep blooming up to the frost

Spider flowers are still putting on a show in the Autumn Garden

Cobaea scandens made a great show on the Drying Garden arbor

Heliotrope is loving the cooler weather with the shortening days

As we transition into autumn, we will be doing the obligatory leaf pickup as they start to fall. This is also a good time for propagation, and we will take cuttings of some of the woody species to root over winter. The tree peony by the Grape Arbor set seed this year, so we will try to get that germinated and growing. Collecting seeds from the popular annuals and perennials to offer interested gardeners will be another fall activity.

A big thank you to all the docents who made this open garden season possible! We hope you get some rest over the fall and winter months so you will come back refreshed for our 2020 spring season opener!

Cheers,
Mark