Disturbing Phenomenon In My East Bay garden

As has been said many times here, coincidence is not causality.

If one really looks back at these issues over many, many years; one would see the natural variation from year to year to year in the number of snails, earthworms, ... what have you. Of course, most people are not logging these natural variations.

Now with all this artificially hyped hysteria over Fukushima, people are looking for anything out of the ordinary that they can attribute ( erroneously ) to Fukushima.

Therefore, when someone notes that the number of snails is down this year, they forget that the same thing happened five years ago but they didn't note it because there was nothing to blame it on.

This type of anecdotal evidence should be eschewed because it's not scientific.

The sunflowers are blooming, but not like in previous years. Although the seeds were from sunflowers grown in my yard last year...off the same sunflower actually...they vary in height, size, stalk diameter...and many are misshapen. Usually, sunflowers are round and symmetric in shape. Not these! Several are egg-shaped and bent and huge. Several have multiple flowers (should only have one per plant) and are a rounded rectangular shape. Some are rectangular and bent convexly in the middle. Some are misshapen and bent concavely. One is huge but only has seeds along one side about an inch strip wide. The remainder of the plant looks like an alien with a deep green pocket...and the bracts (the part of the bloom that covers the petals & folds back after the blossom opens)look like green pointy pyramids instead of like bent back leaves.

The seeds were originally organic...not GMO. The soil in my front yard has been totally replaced. I personally dug 8" or so off the entire top of the front yard about 5 years ago, hauled away the soil, and amended the soil with compost, etc. I got rid of the soil so I would have room to add amendments to it. The seeds that were planted were grown organically...by me!

So, no snails, no bugs, no salamanders, no worms...and now mutant sunflowers. So tell me again about how minor our exposure has been to Fukushima's radiological byproducts here in the SF Bay Area...

As I stand looking at these flowers, I wonder how much damage is being done to my very young grandchildren. If a seed is able to mutate like this, what is happening to their little bodies as they consume this poison?

I found my first earthworm yesterday...fat little guy about 3 1/2" long!!! It was in the rosebed...close to Mr. Lincoln. I was weeding...and heck yes I let those weeds grow BIG this year! Had a bumper crop of roses ...so big that my son even noticed. I also found a couple of live snails in the shell in that bed. No other bugs noted.

Apple tree is really loaded this year. My husband informed me that very few apples "have holes" in them this year. As an organic gardener, I battle coddling moths (the critters that make the holes in the apples...otherwise known as "worms" in the apples). Coddling moths "winter-over" in the soil around the apple trees. Come spring, they emerge, fly to the fruit, and lay their eggs near the blossom end. So few holes = few coddling moths. Never thought a lack of coddling moths would be a concern...

I was out with my flashlight a week or so ago...looking for snails. Found a salamander sitting on the walkway. Salamanders in this area are usually dark brown / black...this little guy was WHITE. Went in to grab my camera...but he was gone by the time I came back.

I've found a few ladybugs, bees are coming to visit the Bright Lights Cosmos, whiteflies are on the geranium, and I spotted some aphids on a weed with flowers similar to a dandelion. Oh, I saw one earwig as I watered the rock garden. Other than that...no other critters to report.

Today, I am going to "make like the little red hen" and plant wheat grass seed in the rose bed. Can't hurt...and will probably be easier to control that other weeds.

I live in Western New York, on 6 acres of lovely lush land. Every summer there is diffinitly an abundance of Japanese bettle, bees, spiders and ants. Not to mention humming birds and butterflies. I have currently not seen any beetles, nor the above mentioned, sans a few bees around my Oriole feeder. Digging beneathe the surface has proven the same, 1-2 worms that's it. It is quite eerie indeed. The songbirds are still around as I feed them year round, but even the deer aren't as abundant as usual. Hmmm.

Well considering the amount of radioactive substances in the soil and air were larger after Chernobyl, I really don't think this has anything to do with Fukushima. The more likely culprit would be the cooler, wetter weather we have had this year.

yep. same here. We usually have tons of snails, but over the past few months, very very few. and we wondered what happened to all the bugs in our soil - we too do not use pesticides. We really miss our honeybee and hummingbird friends. Hardly any to be found, and we used to have to refill the feeders all the time! now, no takers.
There were always a lot of crows around here. Now, very few of those too, and hardly any songbirds this spring/summer.
I guess I'm not too bright - I didn't attribute this to radiation, but the timing is suspect. It all began shortly after Fukushima.
But lots of people swear this is due to the unrelenting chemtrailing since January in this area day and night for months. I don't know.
We too are on the west coast, OP. SoCal.