just a vine

we met the surprise concor grape vine ( i am presuming it is concord since the only other vine in the yard is a seedless one and i did not propagate a cutting from it ) earlier today...

there was a lot of vegetation growing up through the back fence around the vine so i went out to clear some of it to open up a bit more light and conserve some soil resouces for the vine...

as i cut back the vegitation the vines collapsed on the ground...mostly...

because that vegetation was what the vines had anchored tendrils to...

so i propped them up on the fence...

and pushed some tendrils though it so the would anchor there instead...we will be keeping an eye on this until they are truly anchored...we may be training vines for a while..

then i cleared out around the base of the rootstock...

and dressed it with compost...stay tuned...we will see where we get.

vines, rocks, blooms

a day off meant an early trip to the campus garden...

where i found the asparagus...

and the einkorn wheat upright...

most of the einkorn is green...

some of it is still flowering...

and some of it is close to finishing up...running on event time it has its own schedule...we will work with it...

over in the "offical" bed the rye grass is filling in which will help the bed retain mositure...and which i will turn under in the autumn to put the organic matter back in the bed...

the hopi turquoise in the rock mulch seems happy ( even if the soil under the rocks told me it was time to water...more about that in a bit )...

anticipating they might be i brought along a few more rocks...

and mulched a couple of plants on the opposite side of the bed...

then i more irrigated than watered both the einkorn and the "offical" bed thoroughly ( i try to do things thoroughly...ask around )...

the intransigent alfalfa is in full bloom...

so is the carolina horse nettle...a quick count found a minimum of sixty plants in beds and around the lawn...they are expanding their range...

back home i took a walk around the back yard...there is maize and its ancestor teosinte coming along next to one another...zea family stuff...

the rye is close to finishing up but still showing some green...july sometime i think will be harvest...

what wheat there is...probably enough to replant a bed and hope for snow much earlier than we have gotten it in the past two winters...will come in next month as well...

the mulberry trees are full of ripening mulberries...so is the ground around them...they are a treat straight off the tree...

mooseberry is thriving on a diet of compost and worm castings...the new growth is an index of how well...

the grapes in the fir trees are looking robust...

and just yesterday i was surprised to discover a very young and verdant grape vine out by the back fence near the decaying elm tree...i will be clearing out some of the bittersweet nightshade that's back there and putting down some compost...i don't find a volunteer grapevine ( thanks to a bird no doubt ) every day...we will be nurturing this one along.

enough with the bees already?

hardly, if you don't want to see bees find a conspiracy theory website and disengage critical thought...

mom putting the finishing touches on...

the seventh completed tube in this bee house...we may not have dragonflies but we do have a wealth of bees.

rocks

got to campus early this morning...

actually saw the alfalfa before the bees did today...

the asparagus remains upright...

and more of the einkorn wheat seed ears are in full flower...

over in my "official" bed...

the maize appears to have fully recovered from the heat...

the soil under the rock mulch i had on the two plants in the corner retained marginally more mositure than the rest of the bed...

i brought along a bucket of rocks of various sizes and since the mulch seemed effective...

and i mulched the rest of that row of maize with them...i chose light colored rocks since i did not want them to absorb heat and dry the soil...i am wondering if i haven't actually exacerbated the corn sweat when it is warm by choosing rocks that will reflect heat back up to the plants...we are in uncertain territory here and i wil be learning as the summer progresses...i can certainly change the color of the rocks if i find it necessary...we will keep an open mind and monitor events...we have options including abandoning the rock mulch if need be..before i left i soaked the beds with the hose and will be back over the weekend to check on how things are coming along...the forecast is calling for moderately seasonal temperatures over the next week so results may take time to form.