no ramps were harmed during this production

i collected the last of the ramp seeds early last month and the bed has been dormant since...every year though the bed is invaded by a network of roots just under the surface of the soil that i fear will impede the ramps in spring as they try to break surface...so, since the ramps are dormant, it was time to clean the bed...

every shovelful i turned over was alive with these things...

i cannot feature the minimal amount of non-ramp plant life that took root in the bed being responsible for a pile of roots a bit over two feet by two feet in dimension...i am thinking these are impinging from outside or from below...

wherever they are from, i dug up the entire bed to remove as many of them as possible...

obviously i could not dig up the entire bed without disturbing some ramps...they are dormant...it did them no harm and they were not out for long...

so after i raked the bed back to a reasonably level condition i set about replanting the wanderers...

ramps are wild leeks...members of the allium family and related to green onions...and they can bunch like green onions ( which is why i have an expanding population )...so i separated the ones that had bunched...

and planted them all, roots down with the tops about three inched under the surface...after the trees shed a bit more i will gather some up to mulch the bed for winter and keep the ramps thinking they are in the woods rather than my yard.