sodden

it is the end of october and it feels like it...it was forty-two degrees ( fahrenheit ) at around one this afternoon and it has been raining since i got out of bed at 2:30 a.m....we had ten inches or better of rain in may which is what put a stick in the spokes of the dense yellow number two crop hereabouts...we have had half that amount in october..however the bulk of it has fallen in the last week or so and things are getting soggy again...i took a side trip around some fields on the way home today ...

and there is still some unharvested ( and unlikely to be harvested any time soon ) dense yellow #2 out there south on county line road...

there is a lot of water as well and some of those harvested and freshly turned bean fields are going to see some erosion...the fields that were left fallow...

seem to be handling the water in a better fashion...certainly not seeing the pools of water the others exhibit...

out back the northern tepehuan teocintli is sodden as well..the silks are matted...

and the seeds are still green...which is unfortunate...

while the zea mays mexicana ears continue to ripen and shatter...and with temperatures forecast to drop significantly below freezing through the day tomorrow ( halloween night forecast includes the possibility of snow ) the whole prosepect of more mature seeds dims significantly...i have wrapped the green ears in frost cloth...this won't prevent damage from temperatures in the twenties however...i have a fair harvest of zea mays mexicana seed...the northern tepehuan may not yield any this season...fortunately there are mores of those seeds in the freezer and i can try again next year...

ending with a positive, since i cleaned and replanted the ramp bed it has remained untouched by whatever was making the bed its own bailiwick...we will see what spring brings.

close out

it's been two weeks since i got to the garden on my appointed day...i worked last sunday and then went home and stained my deck...i know...excuses excuses...well...the asparagus isn't ready to cut back yet and the rest of the garden is pretty dormant...so that left my bed...

the alfalfa is perennial and it stays...however there was shattered maize...a dead tomato...a finished pepper...some spuds..and some robustly blooming native plant to take care of...

which i did...

gathering a handful of elmer's blue fingerling spuds...

i know it is a bit late to be sowing cover crops...however the weather forecast seems favorable to all the cool weather germinating sweet clover...

legumes ( hairy vetch and yellow peas with a shot of rye grass )...

and winter wheat i put in and thoroughly watered using a gallon jug since the hose was disconnected...

the clover and winter wheat i had sown in a couple of weeks ago is filling in so we will see how the cover crops do...i can always add compost in spring...this is the end of a mediocre season...with the exception of mature seed from the zea mays mexicana it was nothing much to write home ( or blog ) about...i foresee another mediocre season next year as well..there will be no spuds so it will be standard garden stuff ( with, perhaps, the exception of some spring wheat...ancient emmer or einkorn seem like good candidates )...the maize hill will be pure compost however...i will not tolerate stunted corn again next season...this, of course, dependent on climate and its offspring weather...bumper crop or disaster we will see what happens...next up, putting the asparagus to bed fro winter...sometime early next month.

non-standard gardening

it is four days past the "average" first frost date here and there is nothing approaching frost temperatures in the ten day forecast...which suits me for now...

because the ears on the northern tepehuan are still stubbornly green...

there are still green ears on the zea mexicana as well...

more are maturing as the days shorten however...

so i brought in a few of the "ripe ears"...

the "ears" are not ears in the sense of the ears it descendant produces, but rather clusters of single rows of seeds in a husk...

this one yielded twenty-seven seeds and the season total is now up to four hundred and thirty-three harvested...if the weather holds i may reach a thousand...we will see.

rather a disappointment

it's mid october and the ramps are dormant...every year i have grown them (so far ) i have removed the native vegetation that takes over when the ramps die back...

i harvested what seed i could find...which was nothing like last year's bumper crop...which was the first clue to the coming disappointment...

after i cleared the surface i systematically dug the bed to find the ramps and remove a network of roots( what sort i do not know ) that invade the bed between the ramps and the soil surface all across the bed each year ( again, so far )...

i put a net around the ramp bed in april when i noticed the surface of the soil being dug...i had suspected predation ( animal or human is undecided ) and today's result would seem to validate that suspicion...i had counted a population of some seventy odd plants last spring but found only thirty-six ramps...these being the largest...could i have missed some? at this point i certainly hope so...

i replanted some of them in the cleared, hoed, and aerated bed in an undisclosed pattern and in undisclosed locations...we will see what spring brings...my hope is i missed any number during the dig...the bed had a surprising population of millipedes... which wasn't a real thrill...

difficult as it may be to clearly discern, the coiled object on my glove is one of the many earthworms i encountered as i searched the bed...always a pleasing sight for a gardener...once the leaves fall there will be a mulch and we will wait for march to see what transpires with this branch of the allium family.

mid october out back

the bed of winter wheat i planted last month is filling in well...

in the bed i planted nine days ago, the rye...

looks to be doing fine...while the wheat side of the bed...

is looking a bit thin...hopefully this will improve if the weather holds...

back in the first bed the sweet clover is coming up as well...wouldn't expect a lot of activity from this until next spring...a slow starter, it produces small yellow blooms that some find "sweet"...

in the zea world the zea mexicana is still pursuing its autumn droop...

the plants have a multitude of green ears and seeds...

although more of the ears are turning a tan color and shattering...which is only natural...

so far i have harvested three hundred and thirty seeds with an unknown quantity on the ground around the plants...i have been dividing the seeds into lots to use for next season's crop and to freeze for the future..just in case there is a catastophic failure one year...we will have back up seed...

all the ears and seeds on the northern tepehuan plants are green...and seen to be in no hurry to mature...we will see if they do before a frost terminates the race...

hardy souls that they are the native berries out there continue to bloom and produce fruit this far into autumn...they will stop that with the frost however they will remain green under the snow...we will look in february or so just to see...

this may look like just the stubble it is...

underneath there is a multitude of robust tubers however...these and a few more along with a frying pan and some canola oil and there will be lunch...

we are moving around front ( where all the showy flowers are ) to have a look at some exemplary workers...hard at it this deep into fall.