two days from april

the industrial fields around here are still mostly brown and stubbly...although some have been turned already...

you can see where water from recent rains has been collecting in low spots...

and since the soil has thawed a bit you can more easily see how common erosion is out there...

there is some green popping up out there...and soon enough they will all be some sort of green ( well..they'll look like they're green...if you get out of the vehicle and have a look under the canopy they are actually mostly bare soil...the green is a subterfuge )

a lot of that green will be chemically induced...which pretty much turns the soil into a sterile growth medium...but that is a rant we have already had...often...

that bareness will be chemical in origin as well...whenever an entity like bayer ( or say a financial institution...wells fargo does this a lot ) takes out a full page ad in the n y times to tell me how safe/good for me its product is i am immediately skeptical...deceit is a p r specialty...with a long and storied history we won't delve into here...we will continue to distrust industrial agriculture and the industrial food it supports...these people have poisoned the central aisles of the supermarket.

allium on the move

it's getting on to the last week of march...the temperature is in the mid fifties ( fahrenheit ) and there has been some precipitation...all good for the aerial bulbs from the onions which continue to take hold...since the month is nearing its end i decided it was time to have a serious look at the ramp bed...

last autumn i laid down about six inches of leaf mulch on the bed which i scooped off and laid to the side...

and when i did i found four of the egyptian walking onions' cousins had broken surface..which is a fair sign that the work on the bed i did last fall at least did not do any harm and may have helped...

even though the strawberries in the south bed have been seriously browsed ( i am still fingering rabbits for this abomination ) the unmolested are showing good new growth...

to help expand the population i took some of the plants i potted last season by pinning stolons in them and replanted them in the bed proper...these two shared a pot and have developed a large root system...we will see about berries and daughters soon enough...

in the course of replanting i ran across my first earthworm of the season...more good news...

the winter rye...

are doing fine...next step is the wait for ears...then, perhaps, rye bread...

the daffodils are keeping pace...yellow blooms soon enough...pretty soon we'll be talking spuds. after i had a look i spread a thinner cover of leaves across th e bed...there are probably some frosty evenings to come yet...

greening microclimate

there was rain this morning and it seems to have been raining a bit more heavily in one part of the yard than another...this gauge is reading around .35 of an inch...

while this one, about eighteen feet away has a bit over .5 of an inch...they were both under open sky...no overarching branches or cover from the house...this is in line with what i was discovering last year which was markedly different rain totals in different locations...some of it could be explained by cover ( the gauge by the thermometer in the tree was never an accurate measure of actual precipitation...just an indication of what reached the ground under the canopy )...however the gauges in the open always read different amounts...i am thinking of picking up a few more of a uniform type to see if it holds up this season...

i hadn't expected to see much in the way of movement from the wheat i planted three days ago and in this i was not disappointed...i found exposed grains of emmer and einkorn inert in the damp...so i covered them lightly and will check again later in the week...

the ever restless strawberries would appear to be getting an early start on spring new growth..the daughters of the original twelve will be producing granddaughters and i would not be surprised at great granddaughters either...i knew this would happen..it is the strawberry way...

as the weather warms and the shoots green and lengthen, i continue to find new clusters of aerial bulbs from the walking onions...soon enough the south side of the house will be an impenetrable mas of onions, winter vetch, alfalfa, grapes, and the relentless jerusalem artichokes with some sweet clover tossed in for good luck and yellow highlights to contrast the red of the berries that will be there as well...the yard is always a busy place..it's just that some times are busier than others...the busy season is just getting underway.

first 2019 outdoor planting

it snowed this morning but you'd never know it now...which means it must be getting later in march and that is time to plant spring wheat...

the spuds and mashua i planted in these half barrels last season did not do well so i switched gears putting an onion in one last fall...and since puddles ( you can see some of her garland stil in the first barrel )cohabited with onions so well i decided that here was where the first spring wheat was going in...

so i worked the soil with a cultivator...

broadcast einkorn in one...

emmer in the other and raked both sets of seed in to a shallow depth...now we wait for a week or so and se what ( if anything ) pops up...

the winter grains would seem to have weathered the cold alright...

the reye does seem to be filling in...

a bit more robustly than the wheat...we will withhold judgement until the season is a bit farther along as to yield however...

the rye is still exhibiting some melt water from this morning's snow...

around the yard, the new yorkers have not been inactive all winter but are looking even more lively...berries in three months...

the buds on the seedless grapes are becoming more pronounced...hopefully we will see grapes in six months or so...

as spring nears i am finding more aerial bulbs from the egyptian walking onions digging in...

to go with the ones i have been looking in on all winter...all from the same parent plant i believe given their proximity to one another

and, as another sure sign of approaching spring, daffodils are popping up in their traditional location pout by the east beds in the yard...ruffeley (!) yellow blooms soon enough.