rain, rocks, horse nettle

the grass at the campus garden was much greener today than it was last week...3.9" of rain ( in my rain gauges at home anyway ) in the past seven days probably had an impact...i also came to the garden believing it might have absolved me from watering...

and after digging down...

about half a foot in two beds to check the soil mositure i concluded my belief was a valid one and moved on...

in my bed the alfalfa is still somewhat contained and adapting...

while the spuds in the mix have declined to be shaded out and have invested in verticality to find daylight...

the teosinte too is coming along well...

so i expanded their rock mulch a bit ( and will have to make a mental note to bring more stone than i did this time next trip out...the mulch is bigger, not big enough )...

more ears of einkorn wheat have appeared over the past week...they are flowering...

and it would seem that flower flies are playing the role of pollinator..which makes sense give the size of the wheat blooms...

before i left i gave the teosinte and the spuds a dose of earthworm castings and shuffled over to visit the asparagus...

which is producing summer spears...

and being visited by unwelcome ( if, in the asparagus's case harmless ) visitors...if this continues neem oil may be called for...

the phalanx of cow peas on the back side of the bed is looking robust...

those dark green leaves are redolent of rhizobia and nitrogen ( incidentally, the alfalfa did not receive any earthworm castings because it is a nitrogen setting legume as well...castings would be coals to newcastle for it )...the bed will be overrun soon...and there should be blooms there as well in a short while...

finally, there is carolina horse nettle both in and out of the beds...

it has spread out in a perimeter of about eight feet out and abour fifteen feet to the east of the bed ( the old biology club bed...and no i am not pointing a finger here ) where i first discovered it some years ago...pull it, mow it, hack it back, burn it, it is not going anywhere...probably even if you spray it...the garden is home...

i did not find many in bloom...

however i did find clear evidence of bloom past and continued reproductive activity...fruits...rhizomes...like berries/stolons, a variation on a theme...dna is relentless.