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.