father's day jaunt

the bad news was the mosquitos early on a sunday morning...they were really the only bad news...the mowed asparagus had already produced another spear to feed the roots for the rest of the summer and i wouldn't be surprised ( but am not expecting ) to see another one pop up...so i will desist from back-filling the soil i scooped out around it and replacing the mulch until the developments are final... i got some half-inch dowel rods for father's day so i brought a couple along and staked up two more asparagus plants to keep them from toppling over...there's one tucked up right next to the gamagrass that's more of a bush than a fern...it won't need a stake so i think that's done for this season...i put one of the yam vine trellises into place a few days ago and the vine has reached the top...all i have to do now is convince it that the mason's twine will be a fine route to take to be in the sun and distribute aerial along when the time comes...the other yam is being difficult about even using the trellis...preferring instead to wrap itself around the winter wheat...this is a poor choice as the winter wheat is beginning to ripen and won't be around a lot longer to serve as something to climb on...who knew training vines could require so much attention? last year's just took to climbing the trellis straight away...i put up some shiny new bird tape across the top of the winter wheat and festooned some in a few new places just to throw the starlings a curve...some gardeners i know swear by bird tape as a simple non-lethal approach and i think a scarecrow might be overkill for such a small amount of grain ( even though it has been suggested and i am not above manufacturing one if necessary...what would the university think?)...so things are still moving along...half a dozen cowpea plants are up in the old turnip bed and the wounded asparagus is on the mend...maize and teosinte doing fine and nothing will stop the jerusalem artichokes or gamagrass beyond a complete catastrophe...rutabagas go in next month and then the experiment in nitrogen retention and organic matter production with cowpeas and winter wheat ( and the whole ground cover/ erosion thing )...couple that with the larger garden in my backyard and it will be a busy season...i'm having fun.