my back yard

the stand of winter rye has shown considerable growth in the past week and is up to around four feet tall in places with a large number of seed heads either emerging or ripening...the dixie clover that shares the bed is blooming well but is living in the shadow of the rye...which it doesn't seem to mind...there is hairy vetch in there as well and it seems somewhat covetous of the rye's place in the sun...to convert desire into reality the hairy vetch has flung out tendrils and is hitching a vertical ride on the rye to gather a bit more of the energy provided by the photoperiod...is that co-operation or a form of parasitism? assuming the rye is unharmed by the ride i would say co-operation but i'm not prepared to assign conscious motive to the behavior just yet...off to plant yet more potatoes and, perhaps, visit a fw industrial fields to see how ( and what ) the other half is doing.