corollary to "the beans are done"

the out of sync, two years in a row, bean filed behind the big bpox stores is pretty much done too...the green canopy has shriveled here as well...exposing pods...

although this field had been sprayed with herbicide at one point in the season there is green topping out above the beans and more than a little queen anne's lace in the rows...stubborn stuff it is not easily intimidated by humans or roundup...

queen anne's lace or not there is as large a multitude of harvest ready beans here as there are next tot he supermarket...and suffering from the same depressed prices...

the field has been for sale for a number of years ( in fact since i started writing about it ) an effort by the municipality to zone agriculture out of suburbia...keep them moving south..this may be bias...it may be aspiration...the results of over-extended aspiration will come up at the end of the post..but first...

the field across the street burdened with dense yellow #2 is for sale as well...more aspiration...

even though the majority of the plants were only three fingers ( which works out to two and a half inches by my tape rule ) they all produced exactly one large ear...

somewhat surprisingly, even when the planter skipped and the plants sprouted around a foot apart...

each plant still produced only one ear...limits to monsanto's engineering?

how long has the road to nowhere been in existence? i'd have to mine the blog...however i am inclined to say it has endured four years of patient waiting for the aspirations of sterling creek road to be realized...

it's still there...nicely improved...fire hydrant, double yellow line, an almost virgin sidewalk...waiting for the economy to catch up.

the beans are done...the milkweed isn't

the season for the beans in the field next to the supermarket is all but done...the canopy of green leaves has shriveled up...disappeared...

and from any angle you care to take there are a lot of them...which could be an issue since the price per metric ton has dropped another $2.92 since i last blogged about this two weeks ago...i can hear the plaintiff wail of an eroding rural base...and with good cause...

there is still quite a bit of green sticking up above the finished beans...what some may call "weeds"...who knows what beneficial insects they may attract however...it's always more complex than good plant-bad plant...

there is a fair amount of volunteer dense yellow #2 both sticking above the beans and dying back with them...it does not seem to have had the best of seasons in yield terms...the best that can be said is it tried...

and the titular milkweed is not done...the pods are still green...or, at least, they have not dried out...i am keeping an eye on these..planning to harvest some seed and plant it around the yard as a way station for monarchs..had their caterpillars in the butterfly weed this past season...hoping to find more next.

the garden is still green

got off work and went to the garden just to see how things are...there has been enough rain in the past few days ( about an inch and a half in the past week ) that there was no need to water...just reconnaissance today...

and there is still quite a lot to see...there are green tomatoes in my bed and just about everywhere else as well...and there ar still multiple blooms on the plants...

they may be monochromatic...

they still have a striking family resemblance to their potato cousins...

and, to a lesser extent, to another cousin in the garden, carolina horse nettle...

the squash plants are still blooming and producing...

the asparagus is still very robust..we are a bit more than a month away from the traditional mulch...

one of the plants is still producing "berries"...

and another has come out in a rash of very late flowers which, unfortunately, probably won't amount to much in the way of seed...

over in my bed there is more than a few tomatoes going on...

the winter wheat is in various stages of development...there are new sprouts...

and more than a few have produced second leaves which is a good sign in over wintering terms...this will be going on fro a time yet...no idea when the first hard frost will be...october fifteenth is the first average frost date...but averages lie and last year it was more toward the end of the month..we will see as we watch the garden shift seasons...but not stop.

first day of autumn

the first day of autumn was prefaced by nearly three quarters of an inch of rain over three days which was a welcome watering in what has been a dry month...

it certainly did no harm tot he northern tepehuan teosinte...

as it...

continues to...

irrupt in...

emerging ears...

and a multitude of silks...

while the teosinte has a way to go before it matures the maize patch is pretty muvh done...i pulled in the last ear this evening...i actually harvested some this season...i have no idea what happened to the squirrels...i left the stalks standing for now since they still have producing bean vines entwined around and through them...

the winter wheat continues to take hold with more plants developing second leafs...i will be looking for tillers soon...

and the winter rye is matching the wheat's pace...beyond that things are quieting down...the beans are still producing and there are a few spud that haven't finished up just yet...

the last of the hot banana peppers are nearly ripe...

and i will be digging up the mashua soon...the bulk of the jerusalem artichokes can wait until after the first frost...but before the ground freezes...ends and beginnings in autumn...i believe we will skip the garlic this year though.