soaked and nettled nightshades

it was already a shade over eighty degrees ( fahrenheit ) in my back yard when i got home form the campus garden about quarter to eight this morning...

after yesterday's heat and in preparation for today's i went out to soak the beds thoroughly...which i did...

looking around i found five tillered maize plants...

and some really nice support roots doing their job...

that was not the most interesting discovery of the day however...in the citizen's police academy alumni bed...along with the collards...i found the non-native and invasive perennial carolina horse nettle with all its little ( and, word of warning, vicious ) spikes...the discovery did not end there however...

when i backed up from the bed, there was one in full bloom...

and when i moved a bit farther into the lot i found four more in bloom...ready to make fruits...even if they don't succeed in going to seed they are not going anywhere...a deeply rooted perennial they will be back every year and, eventually, succeed in seeding more...clearly the original individuals which were confined to the old biology club bed have moved out to colonize the lot...i have ( often ) pointed out that these plants are well beyond their native range of the southeastern seaboard...they should not overwinter here but clearly have...a new environmental niche...and just one more line of evidence for climate change being an actual event, not some liberal or chinese conspiracy...we verge on a rant which we may reserve for a different blog...let us move on to nightshade morphology...

these are carolina horse nettle blooms...

and this is a potato blossom...aside from the color ( which varies from variety to variety of potato...i am unsure of color variation in horse nettle...i can only remember seeing them bloom in this color...however i haven't see that many ) the salient difference is that the segments of the pistil of the horse nettle are separated while those of the potato bloom are closed...not that you need that...the thorns on the horse nettle are a dead giveaway.

nightshades

there is an excessive heat warning in effect for today so i got to the garden early to look in on things...the watering schedule seems to be holding up well ( i will be back tomorrow for my turn ) and so after i hoed down the jerusalem artichokes in the corner bed ( control takes diligence ) i moved along to see what was going on...

the asparagus is looking well...despite the heat warning the past few days have been rainy and relatively cool...so the one of the plants has put up another spear...that behavior may trail off as the heat builds...

around the back side of the bed three of the four potato plants are blooming or verging on it...

the potatoes' fellow nightshade in the bed has bloomed as well and is working of fruit...there will be red showing soon enough...

down the roe the maize is looking robust and i found a smaller outbreak of jerusalem artichokes...

the beans are fine as well although there is still no sign of any vines...we will wait...

the maize plant that was tillering last time hour has added another...

and a few plants over this one has produced two..the prospect of multiple ears from multiple plants seems to be improving...still early in the season however...again we will wait...

another nightshade in my bed has filled the cage, bloomed, and produced fruit...and with hot weather on the way things should be moving along even faster...

not to be left behind a plant in my bed is working on some green bell peppers...these tow are recognizable and there are two more nascent ones as well as a few more buds preparing to bloom...

speaking of peppers, the one i saw in the library bed last time out seems to have vanished...no worries though...there are more on the way...

and, judging by the blooms in the school of nursing beds, it looks to be a fair season for cucumbers as well...july up next..first full scale ripenings and harvests...should be interesting.

summer evening

it's a warm summer evening out back...a bit cooler than the summer afternoon that preceded it...so i went for a stroll to see what was what...

happily the ramps have begun to bloom...

the onions are ahead in that respect...

and i noticed the intermediate wheat grass has joined in...

the winter rye is moving along towards ripe...

all those purple winter vetch blooms the bees were all over have begun to transform into seed pods...

the asparagus i transplanted is still doing just fine..in a couple of years this whispy guy will look more like...

will look more like this sturdy plant...

with structures like this which will produce the "ferns" the seedlings resemble so closely...

and, if all goes well. in 2023 they seedlings will be putting up edible spears like these in the community garden ( which is where the seed for these came from )...

i found bees hard at work today...

when i strolled over to the chinese yam vine i found some less welcome insects busily working as well...obviously dousing the grape leaves in neem oil a couple of times had driven them so seek sustenance elsewhere and the yam leaves were supper...

so i got out the garden sprayer and soaked the yam leaves as well hoping to keep them from being skeletalized...i will have to be vigilant here...look into the strawberries and keep an eye on the grapes...see where they land next...the jerusalem artichokes are probably safe...the potatoes and tomatoes are nightshades..i imagine they are safe through toxicity...i an thinking the beans will need to be sprayed...never have found one on the maize or teosinte...there's a first time for most things though...depends, i suppose, on how many beetles and how voracious they are.