slow event time at the south end of the inland sea

i have not been to the campus garden since early november so, since i had the time, i took a drive over there this morning just to look around...

things seem reasonably quiet there today...

it looks as if the fabric coveing the asparagus bed is holding up...however last night's lake efect snows have obscured things to the point that verificartion is mostly a guess...

the alfalfa in my bed is being its unruly self and would seem, with the aid of the weight of the snow, to have broken free of the twine...that will need to be cut back and corralled again in the spring...

there is still carolina horse nettle in evidence...

and it clearly intends to use both seed and rhyzomes to continue its colonization efforts...stubborn plant...

it snowed in my back yard as well...

which has provided the winter wheat with a modicum of cover...

even if some of the plants look less than happy about the amount...

the rye seems more content with events...

down in the basement there are some robust looking spuds under the lights...my expectations for production are minimal...however they at least have an opportunity...

the cohabiting rye is looking a might "leggy" and much of it has fallen over...most of the plants have developed second leaves though and so they are progressing...again i expect little to nothing in the way of ears...still we wil give them a chance...it is quiet here these days...goes with the season and a deliberate curtailment of basement growth...more as it comes up.

seven days in the rye

as i recall i expressed some doubt about how well the rye would do...i don't know why...

this was january second...

the third...

the fourth...

yesterday...

and today...

these popped up on the fourth ( winter rye is always in a hurry...thinks it is autumn )....

progressed through yesterday ( adding one more to the population )...

and today are showing signs of nascent first leafs...in fact i see a number of nascent leaves since the rye polity stands at forty six plants in various stages of development at the moment...one should never doubt the relentless single-mindedness of dna...remeber last winter's blooms and berries? all in the artifical plant environment of the basement...and the spuds?

we harbored no doubts there.