peat moss

a short shift left time for a garden run to do some work...

the potatoes behind the asparagus look well, however after the powder dry soil last time out...and with no rain to be seen in a forecast...i wanted to do something about soil moisture...

a rock mulch would be impractical and i have no desire to pull rocks out of this bed so i dug trenches about three inches deep around the plants...

and filled them with peat moss to retain mositure...and actually mulched the entire bed as well...we will see how this works...the soil was reasonably moist from four days ago so i did not water quite so much today...i will be checking in a day or two to see what is up...this will be covered with compost as i "hill" the spuds and has the advantage of being turnued into the bed at the end of the season and, hopefully, that will not diminish its ability to reatain moisture...

over in my "official"bed there is a bit more garlic up...however not as much as i had hoped much less how much i planted...so some hopi blue maize may go in here soon...unles the garlic picks it up a bit...

the alfalfa is doing well...

and my very favorite correspondent will still be pleased that it is ignoring limits...

and that, unless i am grossly mistaken, it is preapring to bloom...

and, as a final note on the campus garden, carolina horse nettle is putting in a late spring appearance...and it will not be deterred...meanwhile here at home...

the backyard teosinte that i planted has begun to green up...there have been a few misfires and i have soaked more seed to add to the crop ( i was getting just a shade over 50% germionation rate and i want more plants to see if ic an improve viability and genetic diversity )...there will definitely be hopi blue maize going in back there directly...more on that before the end of the month.