the other community garden

the seed potatoes i cut yesterday calloused well so after work today i drove over to the portage community garden to plant...

i added one hundred and twenty pounds of compost, raked it out even, and turned it in...

while i was working it in i bumped into some old friends i hadn't seen all winter...always good to see them...after i raked the bed reasonably even again...

i proceeded...

to plant...

spuds...twenty two in all...i left the north side of the bed empty to accomodate some maize ( hopi turquoise ) i plan to plant next month...we will see how the spuds do and if there is any recurrance of late blight at the end of the season...hoping not...one does not actually know

late blight

i ordered and received seed potatoes form north valley seed in march in anticipation of april planting which, it seems, is happening on the last day of the month because , while the weather is still on the chill side, events have overatken the weather...specifically...

when i opened the box to have a look i deiscovered on of the tubers had developed a rather serious case of late blight and was in an advanced state of putrifaction...the seller certified the tubers as non GMO, however they were not certified "disease free" since clearly they are not...something to be mindful of in future seed potao shopping...i have run into this before with locally grown seed potatoes and did take the precaustion of isolating these tubers from seed potatoes i have harvested from the basement and late last season ( those are in need of planting as well )...

so i cut the unaffected ( one hopes, although they were solid when i cut them so we may be fine )tubers to allow them to callous for a day and after work tomorrow there will be planting in a variety of places...

cold as april has been there is movement out in the yard...the strawberries are bloming...

and ( planted simply because i like the color ) so are the grape hyacinths...

the winter rye is approaching a foot in height ( we will leave the wheat for another time )...

more spears of asparagus are emerging...

the onions...

the garlic...

and the ramps all show a strong spring allium pesence in the yard...

while the mooseberry bush is looking much livelier than this time last year...we will see how the potato business goes tomorrow...and the rest of the season.

closing in on may....

...even if the weather is still changeable...

april twenty-third saw sunny skies and temperatures in the mid eighties ( fahrenheit ) here at the south end of the inland sea...today it is twenty degrees cooler and rainy and there is a frost/freeze warning in effect for next tuesday night...must still be spring...and the cold hardy are still prepared...

out in the east bed in my back yard the asparagus is up and cohabiting with the onions and berries...

and some of those same berries are blooming...this may be premature...and, by the way, the blooms appeared one day earlier than last season...

in more allium news. both the garlic...

and the ramps are looking robust...

and the mooseberry bush is coming into leaf at least a month earlier than last season...one presumes last season was all about roots and this year may see some work above ground...at least one hopes...

meandered over to campus this morning as well...

the alfalfa is a vibrant green and evincing good new growth...blooms and nesting materials for the bees soon enough...

on the back side of the asparagus bed the einkorn wheat is doing well with some fine clusters of little green plants...ancient dna on the rise...

down the aspragus trench on the other side of the bed...

some of the spears had reached harvestable size...

so i did...we will see how this whole frost/freeze business works out later this week.

green and purple

took a trip out to campus this morning to see what ( if anything...it has ben a cold april ) was up and, despite the cold, there is movement...

the alfalfa is clearly green...

while over in the aspragus trench there are...

twenty-five...

spears of various...

shapes and sizes that have broken surface...none of which is near ready for harvest ( it has been a cold april )...

and, happily, on the back side of the bed two rows of einkorn wheat have popped up...

ten thousand year old dna is green again.