it has been reasonably cold for late november in these parts and there has been snow...not that much really..about an inch and a half of accumulation this past week and with the warming going on it is melting off..it is getting to be late autumn and things are changing and i am wondering just what the coming season will be like and i am hoping this is not a harbinger of future conditions...
it has all but melted off the rye and wheat beds...
leaving just an icy crust around the edges with plants poking through...winter wheat needs three to six inches of snow to insulate it from temperature fluctuations and to provided spring moisture...a snow drought can kill it...which i experienced first-hand wither before last which led tot his year's attempt ( disappointing ) at spring wheat...i am concerned about another snowless winter...
there are other things besides concerns over things i have no way of controlling ( an issue for agriculturalist since the neolithic revolution...gardening teaches some acceptance of loss...it also instills a quest for ways to lessen or prevent it..that's why it's called agri culture )..most of the teocintli ears have turned down and begun to shatter...which is fin with me...one can hope for spontaneous teocintli in the spring...i will be germinating and planting but the yard is always full of surprises..i have collected several hundred seeds and will be hoping to produce another generation in 2019 ( these plants have all been grown from seed i collected in autumn 2017 )...
the cold seems to have had little impact on the walking onions...
and the new york wild strawberries are living up to their "tough little plants" reputation...and while we are talking tough little plants...
puddles' kids are just fine..they are growing leggy, collapsing, and putting up new vertical growth just like mom did...there will be a mat of green on the surface of the soil before long...we will see them through the winter and into the spring sunshine...
i have marginally more control over environment in the basement...and while i can neither recreate natural sunlight or daylength i do have the ability to provide a consistent one with enough necessary elements to keep the basement a bit green...the four mashua plants are all exhibiting new growth and yacon is looking green and healthy...a counter point to the outdoor uncertainty.
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