blooming yellow

it was warm and sunny when i got to the garden after work today and i had a decision to make...water or not...

given the decidedly yellow tint of the alfalfa...

the pepper plant...

and at least half the maize i opted not to...it is clouding over and there is a forecast 50% chance of rain...rational people never trust the rain but i just looked at the radar and it would seem i made a proper call...we will see...

some other garden denizens are fine with the weather..the asparagus is booming along...new spears and all...

the spuds in my bed are robust ( more on those and a relative in a bit )...

and, like home, the tomato plant has begun to bloom...and on the subject of blooms...

the spuds are content and blooming away...some very white basadre flowers here...

and as a morphological treat here are some of their cousins the carolina horse nettle also enjoying the early summer...way out of their native range but having a fine time anyway...

while the spuds are blooming they shoe no signs of desiring to bear fruit...disappointing but not unusual...their less refined cousins will have no such doubts...they will fruit...we will watch.

a bit drier

six tenths of an inch of rain night before last brings june's total to three and one tenth inches which is less than third of what fell in my yard in may...so some of the less hydraulically inclined plants in my yard are making a slow recovery...

the tomatoes were not so much hydraulically as temperature challenged...with a warm up they have begun to bloom..so i caged them this morning...

since i put down the repellent i was told was not going to work the rabbits have laid off the maize and there are sixteen up and running...late...but not as late as the industrial corn around here...it is, in fact, too late...every field not planted will be changing to beans...

the rabbits were never interested in the zea mays mexicana and it is somewhat larger than its descendants...that will change if it stays warm...

the rye...

and the wheat have elected to ignore the weather and get on with ripening towards a season's fruition...harvest and the chore of threshing and winnowing son enough...

ramps have long been died back but the few intrepid plants among them are preparing to bloom...i will be clearing the bed soon and spreading a batch of last year's seed to help populate next season...

the walking onions continue to produce a profusion of blooms and bulbs...another serious colonizer ( like virtually all perennials ), i will need to retrieve bulbs to keep them somewhat ( after all i want onions ) in check...

finally, it is the end of june and i took some cuttings form the basement mashua to try to propagate some plants and, perhaps, tubers...we will see what progress, if any, this makes as the summer moves along..july soon enough...hopefully things will take off.

neolithic wheat

it is seasonably warm...and dry...although there is rain in the forecast...no surprise there...

none of which has much to do with the emergence of ears of emmer wheat...domesticated around ten thousand years ago...again there is ancient dna in my yard...wheat isn'r especially at home in heat...i planted this in late march and it germinated quickly and grew slowly...it is not the towering size of the rye...or even the hard red winter wheat...

both of which are ripening quickly...i see a harvest next month...the emmer will go on a bit longer...and, while the einkporn is robust, there is still no sign of those ancient ears...

there are at least ten new maize plants up back there...

and in a matter of two days the rabbit gnawed maize has again shown resilience that i did not expect...

the northern tepehaun teocintli i caged with chicken wire is finally showing new growth...with such a long season expecting seed this year seems overly optimistic..still...we will wait and see what happens...

the zea mays mexicana seems to hold not interest for the rabbits...i have put down a repellent...i am told this is a fool's errand...did it anyway..again, we will see...

the grapes are moving along..

while mulberry drupes are ripening on the tree...

ripe ones are littering the ground...waiting for the birds...

spud row is coming along well...though if the temperatures remain warm i am skeptical of back yard blooms...

the jerusalem artichokes continue their colonizing path while the strawberries stubbornly defend their turf and look for new land to colonize outside the bed...which is bringing them into conflict with the lemon balm...the nietzschian struggles continue...

and the egyptian walking onions...epitomized by the brute defying the jerusalem artichokes...are producing copious numbers of aerial bulbs and are blooming to engender seed...dna across the yard continues to be relentless...ends justify means seemingly...and the means..from clones to seeds to bulbs to stolons are all in play.