maize, corn? depends on what it is and where you're from

i got to the garden early ( well...before 8 a.m. ) to have a look around and water what was there because the 60% chance of rain last night seems to have left us with the other forty...

i found the aspatagus bed in pretty much the same robust shape i left it in last thursday...it is ferning, feeding the roots, and flowering...i am hoping for more seed this season than last...we will see...

the tomato plant i put in and the five volunteer spuds that have irrupted are doing just fine as well...we will need to hill the spuds soon...remind me to bring some compost next trip out...

it seems to be a season for volunteers...aside from the five in the asparagus bed and all the ones i have encountered at home, i have located one in my bed on campus as well...fortunate i like them...

over in my bed i found the jerusalem artichokes quieter but by no means intent on leaving...

i also found seven corn plants that had germinated from seed i got from the usda specifically for the campus garden...

the hill i constructed out of compost was not tightly packed and the seed is planted only about an inch deep so wen i watered the hill i seemed to have caused some erosion which exposed the nascent root system and the germ of the kernel that is still feeding the plant...so i took a few photos and then covered them back up..i will need to be somewhat more careful until the plants are a bit better established...

seven are from usda seed...however there were nine plants up...and this one is what i would call maize...and heirloom zea or i will eat my hat with no salt...given its location in the bed i am calling it a red flint...one of two i planted along with two blues...we have a grain crop started that the squirrels may or may not nail ( we will know if the do not touch the udsa corn that it is hybrid field corn...even squirrels know it is nutritionally void )..whatever the squirrels do , the trellises for the pole beans have germinated...another eleven inches of height and the beans go in...next month perhaps.