this past tuesday i harvested the beds of winter wheat and rye...both grains have fragile stalks ( as evidenced by the pounding they took from the rain ) which makes it difficult to weed and so, in addition to the volunteer potatoes, both beds have an assortment of native plants that have been left behind...rather than let them take the beds over i decided to plant field peas as a short term cover crop...
the peas arrived int today's mail...so...
i went out and dug the beds...
carefully working around the viney volunteers...
and broadcast the seed as thickly as the amount i purchased would allow...these will be turned under in september when i replant the grain beds for next season...
we had an inch of rain overnight so this morning...before the mail arrived, i wandered out into industrial agriculture to see what, if any , impact it had...
i did find some standing water...
and a few places where water had obviously damaged crops ( including one that neatly illustrates the corn/soy bean monoculture that pretty much is industrial agriculture hereabouts )...but not that many...
and the drainage ditches were not exactly filled to overflowing...which has me thinking that the rain was more "locally heavy" in my yard than down south...or that the crops are well enough established and it has been dry enough that the rain soaked in rather than pooled on the surface...or a combination of both...i don't have rain gauges scattered around the fields ( although that might make an interesting project if i could find a cooperative farmer ) so i have no idea what might be the case...just conjecture to this point.
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