got to the garden early this morning to check on things...last night's rain negated any need to water, so it was just a matter of some routine maintenance...i found the asparagus ferned and flowering...and, despite the recent heat, throwing out a new spear...more green to feed the roots...i dressed the asparagus with compost last week and will probably do so again at the end of the month to keep things healthy...
when i went around to the other side to hoe the bed i found things in good order...the volunteer spuds and the tomato plant all look robust...and there is a nascent corn plant coming up to anchor the west end of the bed...there is room on the east end fro a few more plants and if no one plants it i will find something to put there...i'd say strawberry but we have enough colonists as it is...
which is what i encountered when i moved to my bed...in themselves i have nothing against jerusalem artichokes...they are sturdy plants with, eventually, contrastingly fragile yellow blooms...and i find the tubers to be tasty...they are a native perennial whose habitat hereabouts has been almost eliminated and i have been rewilding the ones i dug out of this garden where i find suitable space...all of that does not mean i was pleased to see more of them up in my bed than i encountered last visit....obviously it is nearly impossible to find all the tubers they set and the rain and sunshine is not harming them any more than the other plants in the bed...the viewpoint has shifted and they have changed from a crop to something of a nuisance that has to be dealt with to allow the other plants to prosper...so i pulled what i could of them out by the roots and hoed down the rest...and will doubtlessly do so again...probably tomorrow...
once i cleared the intruders out i had a look at the plants i want there this season...they are doing fine...both the usda hybrid (first photo ) and the heirloom flints are between four and five inches tall...a few more weeks and it will be time to plant the pole beans for two thirds of the three sisters...
either the rain or the wind (? no idea really ...slept though it ) unearthed on of the corn plants again...exposing the remaining germ that would still seem to be feeding the plant...i stood it back up ( corn has no real issue with falling over and being put back up upright...its ancestor teosinte actually insists on falling over at a certain point in its season...if you want it upright you have to support it ) and, this time, i packed some soil around the base a bit more tightly...eventually there will be support roots and no need for damage control ( barring a massive storm )...
the tomato and its nightshade cousin the volunteer potato at its base are doing well...the bell pepper may be beginning to have some issues with the alfalfa ( which is just coming into bloom ) and there may be some need to control the alfalfa to allow the pepper its fair share of sun...something to ponder for tomorrow's run...we are i good shape if we can keep ahead of the jerusalem artichokes...vigilance and persistence...
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