six days later

in the past four days we have had two and six tenths inches of rainfall...and it is still raining...i had some necessary errands to run which took me out south so i took advantage of the situation to have a look around the industrial fields...i did not find any tanks of anhydrous ammonia...

i did find considerable standing water out there...

some of it draining through older and more recently established formalized channels...

and some through cuts eroded into the berms of the fields...erosion is no one's friend...ask the slash and burn horticulturalists on hillsides...and, while rain is a necessity in the land of dense yellow #2 a surfeit is as much of an issue as a lack...climatologists maintain that wet areas will become wetter and dry areas drier with climate change...so far the empirical evidence supports that...last may we received ten inches of rain in a month...something like a quarter of the yearly total precipitation...and it put a stop to corn planting hereabouts and left more than a few fallow fields that are still colonized by native plants...so far this month has seen five and a half inches in my back yard and rain is forecast for the rest of the month...or, at least, the probability of rain...may is almost here and it's raining..another stalled season?

bed six

i went out and invested in a few hundred pounds of composted manure this afternoon and took it over to the community garden...

i spread it out reasonably evenly and turned it under...the seemed to have been turned since i was there last so thanks to whoever was responsible....it made the task that much easier...after i turned the compost under i went over the bed with a warren hoe to break up the soil and disrupt any roots that might have been hanging around and evened the bed out as well as i could by hand ( i neglected to bring a rake )...

i have more than a few seed potatoes at home that are clamoring to be planted so i brought along a few german butterballs, a michigan blue, and an elmer's blue to start the bed off with...

put them in the southwest corner of the bed...the rest will be put in down the road....so far the only thing definite will be a row of maize along the north edge...the rest is undecided but will probably be the standard sort of things...we will leave the experimentation for the back yard

unnecessary travel

the trip i made out south on tuesday, when i observed some anhydrous ammonia being injected into the growth medium, could probably have been defined as "necessary"...today i went out south just to go...and, while i did not interact with anyone and was alone in my truck thusly following "social distancing guidelines"...the trip was about itself...

and i did see more fertilizer on the move...the lake county co-op out in porter county moving the "inhalation hazard" closer to the fields where it will do in more earthworms before it feeds the dense yellow #2 i suspect will grow out there this season...if the weather doesn't interfere...petroleum based ( or dependent ) inputs should be cheaper this season...i am told anhydrous ammonia is going for $472/ton which is a long way from the $851/ton it was about six years ago...herbicides and insecticides should follow the trend...wouldn't expect bayer or monsanto to be cutting any deals though...

some fields have been worked...

some have not...the presumption is that these are where the ammonia is headed...

i did have a look at some erosion while i was out...it has not really abated...

this was a spot on a rainy january day this year...

the same spot late last month...

and today...obviously farmer brown has decide to run with the erosion rather than fight it and turn the eroded gully into drainage...a reasonable choice since the field was draining down the slope and across the road there anyway...perhaps the lake in the road will abate now...

at home more asparagus is up...

and downstairs there are half a dozen new spuds up that will be transplanted outdoors soon...the community garden hasn't cashed the check yet so until there is some official acknowledgement there won't be any movement there...when they do, compost first..then spuds...the rest will wait until later in may.

a variety of communities

we actually received more rain yesterday than i thought given the short duration...and six of the next ten are forecast to be rainy...

yesterday just before the rain i saw farmer brown out injecting his field with anhydrous ammonia and killing the worms...in more ways than one...anhydrous ammonia kills about fifteen percent of the local earthworm population by drying and changing the chemistry of what i suppose passes for soil...and the community of gulls are not doing the worm population any favors either...still...if the weather doesn't turn unrealistically rainy as it did last may planting is nearing quickly...we'll see...

since the community garden on campus has been rendered "closed for the season" by the authorities in control of that institution a bed has ben leased...for a nominal fee...from the portage community garden to provide an outlet for surplus energy and plant life that usually occurs here in the somewhat limited back yard..the soil looks to need some work...easy enough to do...some compost..say three hundred pounds or so...and we will be of and running...corn, beans, squash, spuds, a few gourds, and a teocintli plant or two should pack the bed...there will be updates as events transpire.

what? again?

there are spuds that had sprouted and demanded to be planted coming along down under the lights...along with what can only be termed a potato shrub which will be a significant disappointment in tuber terms but has developed a very robust above-ground presence...the younger ones are marked out for transplanting outdoors...but not yet...

because winter at the south end of the inland sea seems reluctant to let go..snowing again...

a wet and heavy snow...

that has weighed down the critter net on the rye, wheat, and ramp beds...

the rye, wheat, and ramps will shrug off the snow...wet and heavy or not...

as will the egyptian walking onions and, no doubt, the asparagus...

i am concerned about the blooms on the russian olives though...they did not look overly happy yesterday and i am afraid this will do them no good...we'll see what it looks like when the snow melts...which it will soon...then, maybe, it will be spring again.