humor me

just looking at some zea i brought in from the yard this morning...one leads to the other.

a sort of harvest

the bean field behind the big box stores has been harvested...probably as well as can be expected...

it's also still for sale ( as it has been for years )...but that's beside the point...

the point ( for me, anyway ) is that in a casual stroll down two rows fro about fifty feet i found quite a few fully loaded bean pods still on the talks that the harvester missed...it looks like anything below four inches off the soil surface stayed in the field and i am wondering how many bushels were left in this field...and in fields across the state and across the bi-annual monoculture corn/beans belt...thousands? hundreds of thousands? i am looking or an estimate...i am also going to be looking to see if anything is desperate enough to glean these genetically linked insecticide herbicide resistant legumes over the coming winter ( if, indeed, we have winter...that is an unresolved question at this point )...we will look into both those questions to the extent we are able.

around the garden the day after thanksgiving

autumn has certainly arrived for the annuals in the garden...at first glance the pepper and tomato plants here looks entirely dead but a closer look shows some fruit was left on the vine...with its decay and fall tot he ground the need to put in transplants may be negated by volunteers...it is always interesting to see what overwinters successfully...

while we are talking volunteers, what i can only surmise was an incomplete harvest has led to new growth in garlic in one of the beds...i noticed half a dozen plants there so there will be garlic next june...

there are literally thousands of marigold seeds hanging around as well...there may be a super-abundance of blooms in 2018...

finally, i kept bumping into ladybugs out there as i roamed around...i have to wonder what they are finding in the way of aphids to snack on..few i'll warrant...they will be done in soon i am afraid and the question of aphids will be resolved...still, can i remember ever seeing this many this late?

asparagus mulch

the asparagus was looking rather verdant for the time of year and we can chalk that up to its cold hardiness and the singular lack of significant frost around here...

and one plant ( actually the only producing plant ) has yielded three more berries which i gladly took for seed...

whether or not the asparagus was green, this was the time i had set aside for this process so i cut the plants back and stowed the compostable detritus in the back of my truck...

then i removed a rouge elm tree that had taken root where i do not want it...

and spread a layer of compost over the cut back plants, marking the locations first so i can scoop the compost back in the spring to aid the spears as they emerge from the soil..asparagus is a heavy feeder and will need more than this dressing during the coming season, however this will give the plants a good start in spring...

i used landscaping fabric and pins to hold down a layer of straw that will create the dead air that will insulate the crowns...the black fabric won't hurt either in terms of warmth...

i pinned down a second layer of fabric to be sure the straw stays in place through the winter and ended up with what kathy forgey said looked like a body..it isn't...just straw and compost...we will open this up in march for the start of the asparagus season...more then

zea thanksgiving

autumn has settled in until winter ( eventually ) finds its way here...i have harvested most of the viable seed i could find...and some of questionable quality...the ears that are opening and shattering now are full of green and immature seeds without full seed cases so my thoughts are that the harvest is over...we will see about viability in a few months...

the maize stalks have support roots...

but nothing like the ones the teosinte produced...artificial selection at work? a spandrel created by selecting for larger kernels?

meanwhile the garlic that has taken root in my truck is behaving seasonally as well.

basement 21 november 2017

i have teosinte under grow lights in three different spots in the basement and, so far, it's doing okay...

some is taller than i would like...however it has broad, green leaves like the grass that it is and the plants are standing upright with no hint of laying over...

better still, some are squat plants that bear a better resemblance to their domesticated offspring than the taller plants...working on roots instead of leaves...

as i expected, some are tall, spindly, and in constant need of reassurance that they should be upright...they are not indoor plants really...i would expect failures along the way...

so far i have one robust looking mashua plant down there that came, not from a tuber , but from a cutting...a couple of green leaves to feed some developing roots...to be able to produce seed tubers fro spring in the basement would be very gratifying...we'll see...

finally, what my friend Jean call "the puddle wheat" ( because it germinated in a small puddle of water in the basement ) is just fine..the original leaves have all lain down, however the secondary growth is turning into wheat...another experiment really...it was germinated and growing rots...the only thing to do was plant it and give it the opportunity to grow...another container of "we'll see"