28 may backyard update

things are going well out back, for the nonce at least...calyces have closed and strawberries are cooking...

the onions i did not pinch off have begun to uncoil from the buds to bloom and produce aerial bulbs...

never ones to be shy about growth...or taking over every available inch for that matter...the jerusalem artichokes that were just breaking surface a couple of weeks ago have reached about two feet...

a surprise ( there were none apparent last season as i recall ) chinese yam has arisen so i put in a tomato stake as the beginnings of a trellis...

and another has come up amid the berries...so another vine and another type of aerial bulb on the way...

eleusis has returned to the yard as the wheat begins to produce ears of grain...

the winter rye has begun to flower...

and the asparagus...

and some of the spuds on the south side of the house seem determined to catch up soon...

seven teosinte plants up and running ( with more germinated seed ready to plants directly ) won't make me anything but pleased ( no maize yet though...they didn't have a head start however )

the seedless grapes are filling in nicely...but what has to be ( for me ) the best news of the day is that...

from concord grape vines i thought were doomed new growth has irrupted..

all along the vines...

and they have made it clear that they fully intend to produce grapes...celebrate when the news is good...there are bound to be losses...gardens are like that...more as it comes up...

zea day

i put forty heirloom maize kernels in to soak yesterday...and the morado purple clearly made its presence known in the water...

this morning i planted them in four beds around the yard...

including this one they will be sharing with some strawberries making their escape from the south bed...

more of the teosinte i soaked last week had declared itself ready to plant so i put it in the established beds ( more on that directly ) and i planted some in the maize beds as well...traditional agriculturalists in mexico say they plant the "wild and weedy" maize ancestor at the edges of their fields because it makes their maize "stronger"...who am i to argue with that...we will run with their wisdom...

and these are tesointe seedlings that survived the 1.6" of rain that bucketed sown in a half an hour day before yesterday and are greening up and preparing to leaf...the gardener is pleased.

busy morning

the weather is warming and it is time to do some planting so early this morning i headed over to the portage community garden, where the spuds are doing well...the blues are even just coming into leaf...but they aren't in the photo because the leaves are so dark they are difficult to tell from the soil...they are there all the same...

i put heirloom maize seeds in to soak yesterday and today i took them out to the garden...

and planted them a foot apart in a low hill of compost along the north side of the bed...once they are a few inches tall i will plant pole beans to use the corn stalks as trellises and have two thirds of the three sisters...

i planted fifteen pea seeds in a fairly dense patch...they seem to like togetherness...by the spuds...

i also planted celery ( not a favorite but there was external pressure ) and some kohlrabi...the bed is filling...there will be a few more additions as the season moves along...perhaps some tomatoes and peppers...finished there i headed home...

where i dug these beds for the fifth time and added more compost...

and worm castings in specific areas even though i found a multitude of worms while i was turning the soil...

then i planted more peas, bush beans, borage ( to attract bees to the squash ), and zucchini...then i turned to more important matters...

many ( though not all ) of the tesointe seeds i soaked six days ago are more than ready to go in...

and this is where that "specific" comes in...i took a handful of worm castings,and a teosinte seedling and carefully planted them shoot side up...altogether today upwards of a hundred transplants, seedlings, and seeds went in for the season's start...there is more maize, teosinte, and transplants lurking in the near future...not to mention the cyclic spud planting...there are still seed potatoes to cut and callous...we have plans.