a leaner, quinoa, missing bean, and a small toad

made a maintenace run out to the portage garden this morning and things are going fairly well...

there was a leaner in the maize row...

so i righted it and gave it ( and the rest of the bed ) a dressing of compost...

three of the six maize plants have tillered...i am thinking the purple flints...and so multiple ears are a possibility...something to look for later in summer...

the beans seem well with a couple of latecomers popping up...which is just as well...

since this particular bean has been thoroughly gnawed...guessing a rabbit...

the quinoa is looking a bit overwatered...rain continues although the forecast calls for a dry weekend...beyond that it seems to have taken to its new home fairly well and did not especialy shock from being moved from home...the weather helped in that despite the yellowing...rain as pharmakon...

the spuds are verdant and...seemingly...willing to cohabit with the marigolds someone has seen fit to plant along the borders of my bed ( it wasn't me...i have my suspicions )...odd how nothing consumes marigolds and bees treat them as famine food...they might land on them in october when everything else has vanished...but not in june...

finally, back at home the weather seems to have brought out a muiltiplicity of small toads around the rocks that form the border for the mulch at the back of the house...this one caught my eye when i saw a blade of errant grass in the much move...as an index of relative size, that is a disintegrating maple seed it is having a rest by...i did say small.

hierloom/improved, ancestor/domesticate

A.

B. which one uis maize and which is teosinte?

this ear of einkorn whaet is done and so has reproduced ten thousand ( or so ) year old dna in my yard...there is more that is still finishing up, however ths one will do for now...

this ear of hard read winter wheat has finished as well...one of a number of survivors from the past winter...

so i brought them in and took a series of badly underexposed photos...this one will serve to give a notion of relative size...einkorn left, hard red wither wheat right...they were both damp and a bit moldy from all the recent rain ( we will get to that ) and so were fairly simple to thresh and winnow ( the einkorn is a very stubborn grain when dry so i was a bit surprised at the ease it displayed in threshing )...

the ear of winter wheat produced fifty-three "berries"...

the ear of einkorn, nine...a clear indication that the winter wheat has been "improved" for higher yields ( through artifical selection, not genetic engineering in the monsanto sense...it was genetically engineered, but by selective breeding...the seed i used was non gmo ) and an easier process of threshing and winowing...the einkorn still retains traits of its "wild and weedy" ancestor and has remained basically unchanged since its original domestication...its intransigence in those matters may be why a pound of einkorn wheat flour wil cost you about double a pound of garden variety whole wheat flour at the store ( or, more likely, on line...not a popular supermarket staple...around here anyway )...they say it is "more nutritious" and chalk its cost up to that...perhaps it is...it is also a lot more work which is whay ancient agriculturalists "improved" it...i won't be milling any of this...rather i will save it for seed, replanting the hard red winter wheat in september and the einkorn in late march of next year...

we were in an "abnormally dry" weather regime until last thursday...this morning's rain squall brings the five day rainfall total in my yard to 3.7"...which is why there's mold on the wheat and flash flood watches abound...

on the other hand the grapes are swelling visibly...i'll take it.

around between the rains

there was a gap developing between squalls so i decided to have a look around...found winter vetch pods...

and field pea pods...

a blooming onion...

ripening mulberries...

and rye...

along with even riper wheat...we will, i belive, be saving this all to replant in september...if i do mill my own flour it will be from purchsed wheat...these things happen...

a trio of native berries...three among many...they are everywhere you look right now...

seedless grapes on the trellis...

concord grapes in the catalpa tree...

and in the fir tree...

saving the best for last ( by my estimation...feel free to choose any other option you like )...the mooseberry bush has new growth ( frostbite falls prospers )...

and one of the girls agreed to pose for me while she was taking a break from a busy schedule on a grape leaf...i was pleased to find her.

rain continues

the drought monitor indicated that "current conditions" would extend for the next thirty days...perhaps...

however the nearly two inches of rain in my yard over the last twenty-four hours has surely made some impact on that...it has certainly impacted local industrial fields...

there is standing water...

in the dense yellow #2 and beans...along with some hints of erosion..

and, in places...

it looks as if the plants may drown if the rains continue...and that is what forecasts call for though the weekend...no need to water anywhere around here.

rain

it's thursday and my day to water at the campus garden and so after work i headed over there and found that the drizle that was going on a few miles south of the garden was a steady rain there...

which can only help the somewhat parched lawn...it has been dry here lately and the grass is suufering...

despite the condition of the lawn, i found the soil in my bed to be well watered at least six inched down...so i decided watering would be redundant and left it to the rain...

the teosinte has grown a bit and seems happy with the rock mulch so i will be expanding that next trip out...

the ten thousand year old dna continues its drive to replicate itself...

the spuds are robust even if the one in the corner by the wheat has lost all its blooms with no sign of fruits...

and the alfalfa seems on the verge of open rebellion...

the camera lens was becoming a bit rain-splattered by the time i got to the asparagus, however you can tell it is still upright...

and still putting up new spears...

while the cow peas on the south side of the bed were soaking up the weather...by this time i was pretty well soaked too...so i took off for home.