i did not expect to see garlic...

...and i did not...at the campus garden today..and, i suspect, at the "other garden" when i visit ...probably tomorrow...

i did find happy alflafa...

and, since the garden hose has been brought out...i gave the bed a thorough watering in an effort to produce happy garlic as well...

the "unseasonably warm" weather is due to take a trun for the spring-like...however never trust the weather...it may rain...it may not...either way the garlic is watered...

over in the asparagus bed there were thirty-three spears up all told...

including a few that had grown so quickly they have begun to "fern"...

to forestall further ferning" i made a small harvest...then headed home where things to a somewhat more interesting turn ( in my estimation anyway )...

there is happy alfalfa in the back yard as well...

there are now eight rows of einkorn wheat...although some of last year's seed has misfired...

the ramp poulation is expanding...and then i stumbled on ( actually i didn't stumble, i am consistent in taking a tramp around the back yard to see what is what on a daily basis...i like to keep track of what's going on... ) some surprises in terms of timing of appearance...as i mentioned the weather has been remakably warm for mid-april around here...still i was surprised to find...

not one but actually two chinese yam vines up and running...may is the usual time for them to pop up...

the new york import strawberries are blooming fully nine days earlier than last year...

and that is a jerusalem artichoke...in the thirteen years i have been growing these they have not once appeared before the tail end of the first week of may...so we are three weeks ahead of schedule here...these are native plants, not imports...they evolved here and are a fair index of the fact that the climate around here is changing...a few years ago the usda quietly modified their "hardiness zone" for this area and the sunchokes seem to be seconding the change...certainly this is the earliest i have ever seen them...if there's an el nino summer we'll see how they all do...could be a tough season.