last day of april

a cool and damp last day of april on the south end of the inland sea precluded much in the way of outdoor activity other than a short tour...the ramps and asparagus are fine with the weather ( third and fourth photos )...the emmer wheat ( fifth ) is doing well also and the dwarf syrian wheat ( sixth through eighth ) had begun to tiller at the base of the plants...more ears of wheat on the way..the seedless grapes and the concord grape vine in the catalpa tree are leafing well...and so is the grandfatherly root stock that has generated the catalpa vine...it has new growth that i am training to say inside my fence ( ninth through elveventh...pardon my thumb )...i am greedy with my grapes...after the tour i went inside to look into teosinte.

germinating

witht he weather staying above frosty lows at night and may around the corner it is time to look towards teosinte...so i gathered the hydrogen peroxide, distilled water, brown paper towels, baggies, a box, and the seeds and started...i put zea mays parvaglumis in to soak for twenty minutes in a 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide firstand, after the requisite time, transferred them to dampened paper towels and into a baggie...then i dug into the freezer and took out a dozen of my dwindling supply of northern tepehuam teosinte seeds and repeated the entire process...i did not grow this variety last season, however it has a much shorter season than the other and i may be able to harvest viable seed if the weather cooperates in the autumn..into a box to germinate...ther may be planting in a week or two.

staked out

i stopped off at the community garden after work today to see what was what and found a few things going on...some of the asparagus that was left too late to harvest has gotten to about four feet in height and the weaker stalks are beginning to collapse under their own weight ( first photo )...so i got some stakes out of my truck and lent them some support ( second )...there were harvestable spears ( third, fourth and seventh ) as well as new growth (fifth and sixth)...with the roots being fed and the plants dressed with compost there may be a lengthened season...over in my bed there are now three red potatoes up ( eighth ninth and tenth )...as usual the yukon golds are taking their time..i also have a robust colony of jerusalem artichokes going ( eleventh ) this is in a bed...imagine what they are like when the are turned loose...finally the garlic is thriving...another forty-five or fifty days to its finish..i will be planting some spuds and maybe a few surprises in my bed as may rolls into view...season's just getting started.

blooms and spuds

there are a number of in-ground yukon golds up and running ( first five photos ) which is good news but i am still wary of blackleg rot...we will see...the asparagus ( sixth) has "ferned" nicely and will be feeding the roots...time for compost...a bumble bee on a dandelion ( seventh )...which bumbled right at me after i took the photo...a rhubarb plant in full bloom ( eight and nine )curious to have a look at seed from these...and while we are talking blooms...the brussels sprouts that overwintered are looking on the verge of flowering themselves( ten and eleven )..finally tonight the seedless grapes ( twelve and thirteen ) as well as the concord grapes in the Catalpa tree ( last ) are leafing out well...looking fro blooms there soon as well.

in-ground spud

it is unseasonably warm this evening ( again! the average high for today historically is sixty-one degrees [fahrenheit] )and that is disturbing...perhaps also a new "normal"...a stroll around the warm back yard revealed the first in-ground spud of the season ( second )...a german butterball i believe...it is in the same bed with the red pontiacs that had one of the batch develop blackleg rot....so we will be keeping a very close eye on this bed as the season progresses...over on the north side the ramps are thriving ( third ) now i am waiting to see who blooms and seeds...on the south side, egyptian walking onions ( fourth ) and garlic ( fifth) round out the allium contingent in this season and all seems well...i have a half dozen syrian dwarf wheat plants ( sixth ) which will, hopefully, provide seed for a larger planting next spring...and the last photo is of the old domesticate emmer wheat...more numerous, these will serve as a seed source as well...there may be a larger population of ancient dna nest spring...we will see.