still life

a stop by the community garden after work to see what was what and i found things moving along on the last day of september...some of the garlic parker! helped plant a week-and-a-half ago is up and running while the jalapeno peppers are chugging along...i found some very late roma tomatoes coming along and wonder if there is time and warmth enough to ripen...paper bags on window sills may be in their future...alfalfa and winter rye are both rampant in some of the beds...others with plants that are producing have yet to be cleared and planted...they will be...the young cauliflower is looking robust nestled in its leaves...banana peppers too are flowering and producing this autumn...and the enduring early blue potatoes are having yet another bash at producing fruit...as you look down the garden there is still life out there...the garden never stops...it just slows down a bit...we are still about a month away from mulching...the relative quiet starts then...until the basement season starts...should be some surprises there this year.

teosinte

eight and ten foot tall plants filling in with silks, seeds, and nascent ears...not too shabby this far north of its native range.

a bit broader backyard perspective

there is more than teosinte out back..the top photo is of a squash bloom on a plant that is desperately optimistic...dna is tenacious stuff...the next three are of various fall green manures...from the yellow peas in the first to the alfalfa, yellow peas, winter rye, and winter vetch in the second...tot he clover, winter rye, and winter vetch...the legumes and the rye reservoir are taking hold on the south side of the house...nitrogen going into the ground and going up into the rye...soil enrichment and compost grown on site...turned under three weeks before spring planting they will feed next year's crops...and some of next year's crops are up and running already...the fifth photo is one of thirty-six garlic plants up so far and the sixth is several of them...no sense in wasting time and sunlight.

ramps!

the ramps i ordered arrived today and so were planted today after work...i went out and prepared a bed under the locust trees next to the one i planted a dozen ramps in last autumn...one of those has flowered and is setting seed ( and taking its sweet time...i discovered this bloom sixty-nine days ago...two mature seeds so far )...those seeds have fifty bulbs to back them up for next spring...they came with well developed roots...so i planted them and watered...now i will be raking leaves ( ironic eh starlight? ) to mulch the beds with and provide compost in the spring...hoping for many many wild leeks in march...in related allium news the garlic bed i planted eight days ago has twenty-six of seventy -three plants up and running...heavy mulch there too as winter sets in.

both sides of the ledger

a mix of news at the garden today and it leans mostly to the asset side but life is never perfect is it? all the alfalfa i looked at today had developed its third true leaf so we are pretty well set with that particular green manure's establishment...so i sowed in some winter rye seed to bulk up the organic matter and store nitrogen...that's two beds ready for winter so far...on the opposite side of the news, something has been at the garlic parker! and i planted last sunday...digging it up...but, oddly, not eating it...i found several unearthed cloves i returned to the beds...back on the positives side the inderterminate early blue potatoes are still blooming...although i do believe more potato fruits are out of the question...no time...the peppers still have life in their season...get them while you can...and at the top of the good news list...we have recognizable cauliflower...cool.

next year's soil

the bean vines in the top photo have ceased producing...the ones in the second have not...so i took the ones that were finished out, turned the soil in the bed over, and sowed in some fall green manure mix and some alfalfa to start on the soil for next year's crops...i was inclined to take the cucumber vines out as well...at first glance...but a bit of further scrutiny revealed a couple of cucumbers growing on the vines and at least one more blossom...so i let them be for now...another half a bed ready for winter.

industrial fall

there are signs of autumn in the biomass in the berm beside the suburban cornfield today...some anthropogenic trash too...when i finally got to he dense yellow #2 i found one ear on the closely spaced plants had split its husk ( the other ear feels as if it might have a kernel or two on it but it is mostly a failure )...and if you look closely near dead center of the fourth photo you will see a larger ear split open as wee...there are quite a few out there actually and if this seed could produce a second generation worth calling that these corn plants could, in a limited way, reseed themselves...puts some pressure on iltus's catastrophic sexual mutation business...corn didn't do that on its own anyway...it had human help...signs of fall everywhere as the corn plants die back from the bottom up...which, incidentally, is what the teosinte plant in the sixth photo is doing...the husks on their ears split open as well...imagine that behavior as genetically disrupted by human artificial selection.