spuds II

out early to the campus garden because i am no night owl and function best in the morning...

over in my "offical" bed...

the alflafa is looking vibrant...

and i am sure that a critically important correspondent to this blog will be pleased to see the alfalfa continuing to ignore limits and engage in reckless behavior...

past that events in the bed have taken a turn for the so so as i can find only two garlic plants functioning...somewhat disturbing...however it is early in the season yet...we will see what transpires...

over in the asparagus bed...

"ferning" continues...

and spear production seems to have slowed...i count only twenty-nine today ( incidentally the total includes spears that have "ferned" )...so the harvest today was minimal...

today's garden agenda was mainly planting spuds at the back of the asparagus bed...when i had a closer look back there it seemed as if the volunteer spud i transplanted from my "official" be had vanished... <

the fabric that covered the bed for the winter was responsible for the limited anount of "native growth" i encountered when i pulled it back...

i turned the bed and worked it with a warren hoe to break up old roots...

finding the missing transplant in the process...which i replanted...

the bed is overflowing at the moment and since i will be hilling the spuds with compost as the season moves along i decided not to add compost today...

instead, as i planted the spuds...

i tossed in a handful of worm casting for each one to get them started...

and then covered them over...now we wait for spuds...and garlic.

spuds

the seed potatoes i had saved from last autumn are certain they are done with being in the basement...i agreed...

so i put a layer of compost in the bottom of a few containers...

and inserted a population in each...the container spuds exceeded my expectations last season so we will hope for equal results this...we will know long about the end of july or so...

this accomplished i began to contemplate the seed potatoes i received last week...my plan was to grow them in the campus garden behind the asparagus...and i still will, however, i have room for only twenty or so plants in that bed and these tubers will produce more than thirty plants..so i will be looking for more space..probably in the "other" garden...i did cut enough tubers to cover the campus needs so they could callous overnight for planting tomorrow...

wiser heads than mine advise cutting elongated tubers along the length to preserve as many "eyes" as possible...so i did...with this one anyway...

after i cut the tuber in half i quartered it...those wiser heads also advise the pieces of seed tuber should weigh an ounce or better...either i am getting better at judging this or dumb luck has come to visit...

the round tubers i simply cut in half and i supplied myself with nineteen cut tubers...with the volunteer i planted at the campus garden this will make a full compliment of ( hopefully ) twenty plants...this too we will know with time...

elsewhere around the yard ramps are ramping...

there is a violet in with the einkorn wheat...

there is sparse wheat in the winter wheat bed...i believe that bed needs a break from wheat...so in autumn a cover crop and next spring some barley...

while the wheat on the compost heap is booming along...there will be elusinian mysteries yet...planting report tomorrow.

backyard and basement

the eight rows of einkorn are doing well...three leaves apiece at least and a few niore months to go...

the winter wheat in the bed has recoverd some...however it is not nearly what was planted last autumn...it is time, i think, to give that bed a break...some winter barley perhaps...conversely, the wheat i planted on a compost heap is booming right along...a line of evidence buttressing the "midden heap" theory of the origins of agriculture?

there is some volunteer rye by one of the locust trees...

more asparagus is appearing in the east bed...

ther ramps are doing well though none seem prepared to flower this year...no seed? well on can hope they bunch...we wil know come september...

the mooseberry bush is every bit as verdant as the alfalfa...

meanwhile, down in the basement , the teosinte's silks have become a bit more pronounced...

and the effort to bloom is progressing...to what result i do not know...i am not sanguine about seed...this is not a natural environment...still..dna will try...

and my seed potatoes arrived today...red, blue, and yukon gold...due to limited space i am considering foregoing cutting most of the tubers this year and simply using them as drops...a weekend project since they are going into the campus garden and i want to be able to park at the garden...more on that later.