the grape vines in the fir trees played no part in reproductive activities this season and clearly their main function was to feed the roots...
the vines in the catalpa tree, on the other hand, were all about seeds...
the grapes seemed to be ripening from the point closest to the roots out to the outer edges of the vines which meant the grapes higher in the tree ripened first and were savaged by the birds...the ones closer to the ground were ripe when i looked today and so i decided to harvest what i could to save the birds the trouble...
so i dropped the harvest into my white "food grade" five gallon bucket and in terms of the overall grape world it was not a spectacular harvest...then again since last year's grapes shriveled on the vine ( for reasons i have not made myself clear on yet ) this is a considerable step up in grape production terms despite the ravenous behaviors of my bird friends...not enough, probably, for any jam or jelly this year...they are concords though and reasonably sweet and so will be passable table grapes and i will be harvesting seed...so into the refrigerator after they have been cleaned...
after i finished with the grapes i took an unstructured ramble around the yard just to see what i might see...this nest of new york import strawberries began in 2017 as three plants if memory is correct...there has been an expansion in population with any number of generations of daughters, granddaughtere, great granddaughters and on and on...
the presence of this bloom in a corner of that bed is conclusive proof that the local strain of berries has wandered into the yorkers' territory...they had already done this in the bed on the north side of the yard and have found cohabitation in the east as well...let the cross pollinating begin...in spring 2020...
my curiosity piqued, i wandered over to the south side of the house where the bed of jerusalem artichokes is winding down for the year...
last may the new york imports in that bed were hedging their bets against a rising tide of jerusalem artichokes by running stolons over the top of the bed out into open yard...still a few hardy ( foolhardy? ) individuals had chosen to drive deeper into the sunchoke colony and i was wondering what had become of them as the season moved along and the powerful shading of the jerusalem artichokes developed...
well the literature that came packaged with the plants did not exaggerate when it called them "tough little plants"...they are still there...still green...and in the time before the first frost and as the jerualem artichokes die back further i can see stolons and daughters moving inland to stake out more territory...a process that will continue in spring before the sunchokes wake...
and the interlopers did not deter the jerusalem artichokes from setting tubers for next season's contest with the berries...
finally, like the zea mays mexicana on campus ( except. for reasons i do not understand, the ones in my yard are topping out at about eight feet in height, not three or so ) the ones out back are coming out in well defined ears...
i can feel the seeds in all those ears...in this one you can see them...another month or better until the first frost coupled with a shorter season than the northern tepehuan variety ( which is flowering but not having a stellar growth season out there ) i am hoping for a fair sized batch of viable seed...these are a second generation from last year's seed and it would be nice to have enough seed to expand the population next year...all these are clear indications of an approaching autumn...soon enough it will be time to plant winter rye and wheat...and more spuds should be coming in...the garden never sleeps.
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