spuds

spuds...so i will start the post with einkorn wheat because it is 10000 year old dna and still around in my back yard and i am good with that...on to the spuds...

the first of the back yard container spuds finished up and produced enough for a fair lunch...no world's record i am sure, however, not bad for a five gallon bucket, some soil, and a couple of months in the sun...as i wandered around out there...

i looked in on the conatainer with the four four corners tubes plante in it and...unexpected growth has occured...so i covered the exposed tuber in some soil and went downstairs...

where i discovered three quarters of those still in the package chitting away...

so i put some garden soil in an appropriately themed pot...

and gave the two most advanced ones a home...

the other two...

went itno a run of the mill pot...everyone got some water and they were put out in the spud container row outside one of the maize/teosinte beds...more as they develop...or don't...they have been inert so long...we will see how it goes

rain

my yard received around 3/4" of rainfall this morning...something of a rarity in a "moderate drought" ( and the national weather service says this is not enough to "break the drought" )...

so, after what passes for work these days, i headed over to the campus garden...

where brown is still the dominant color in the lawn...

the soil was well watered down to six inches ( so i did not dig deeper )...

that asparagus is around eight feet tall...

and all the asparagus is full of blooms and blooms turning into"berries"...there will be asparagus seed and that seems to show the plants are doing well...

the spuds behind the asparagus, conversely, are having some relatively minor issues...

given the yellowing going on, the rain plus the downright soaking i gave them the last time out, may have provided a touch too much water...they will recover and i will let them dry out a bit...

over in my "offical" bed...

the volunteer spuds are not yellow ( one wonders if the peat moss i put in the bed behind the asparagus might be retaining a bit too much moisture )...

and the hopi blue maize is looking sturdy...

the alfalfa continues to produce blooms...

and, much to the glee of a very important correspondent, ignore limits...

the new patch of alfalfa that popped up has been severely cut back by some uninformed gardener...it is still there...still a perennial...and stubborn...

and, as if to underscore its defiant nature, another new patch has irrupted further down the row of beds ( and we know where it is coming from )...

and, while we are talking stubborn populations, the carolina horse nettle is stil blooming around the garden...and it isn't going anywhere either...

and, finally, in my back yard einkorn wheat is beginning to produce ears...10000 year old dna carries on...tenacious stuff.

if it were eaten i'd call it predation...

instead i may just call it vandalism...

something was rooting around in my maize and teosinte beds so i put deer fence up around the bulk of it...however i did not cover all of it since there are a few places out there with only a small number of plants...

the digging had abated for a time...it has begun again and i found a broken maize plant and an uprooteed on in one bed that was prone to attack...

the uprooted plant was around eleven inches tall and as i dug around it to get it out to transplant to a safer spot...

i found one long root longer than the plant was tall ( and i am not cetain i dug it all up ) which struck me as odd for such a small plant..but then what do i know?

i dug the plant a new home close to some kin...

and planted him...

with a little extra company i ran across...

this plant was perilously close to the digging so i went back...

popped him up...

and put him in with his kinfolk...it may be a bit more crowded there, however, it is better lit at night and may keep whatever is digging out there a bit further away...one hopes...one hopes a lot in a garden...or a yard...or whatever you care to call this

second day of summer

grapes in the fir tree...

winter wheat finishing up...

eye level winter rye...

hopi blue maize...

teosinte...

intermediate wheat grass