8000bce

ten thousand year old dna has reproduced in my yard...

in terms of the current "improved" varieties of wheat it is not exceptionally tall...mostly under three feet...

with a shallow root system...

and fairly small ears...

which becomes more obvious when compared with an ear of hard red winter wheat ( still soggy from last night s thinderstorms )...

add in the fact that each wheat "berry"...

is encased in a though husk and you can get something of a handle on how much labor early agriculture entailed ...the first time i tried to thresh this grain i immediately understood why early agriculturalists put it in a threshing room and let the oxen walk on it...why anyone would involve themselves in this on a massive scale ( i do it because i am nosy ) except out of compulsion ( whether from necessity or by force ) would be another mystery of human behavior...still.. the relentless drive of einkorn dna goes on...in my back yard and in a few other places

solanum walk

at least one of the four corners buds has bloomed which led me to look around the yard and through the photo archives for family resemblances...

tomatoes are nightshades...

and, redundantly, so is bittersweet nightshade...

as is black nightshade...

and any of the other thousands of varieties of spuds you'd care to mane...

the stubbornly invasive caroline horse nettle is solanum as well...you'll have to dig up representations of eggplant blooms on your own.

nearing the end of july out back

my back yard recieved a touch over two inches of rain in about two hours yesterday evening...no complaints about that...

there was no hail, however the rain was heavy at times and it caused some of the teosinte to lean...

no worries though...it is a maize ancestor, and like its progeny you can simply stand it back up...i buttressed them with some garden soil and no harm done...

recent rains have induced new irruptions of dryad's saddles on the dead elm...

a bit of left handed scale...

the jerusalem artichokes have topped six feet and under that netting to the left are a wealth of seedless grapes which the camera seems unable to focus on...i have some stunning shots of the netting however...

i could get some clear photos of the concord grapes in the fir tree however...these will be netted soon enough as well...

the mooseberry bush, which looked like a dead stick to me a couple of springs ago, has topped the cage with new growth...we will be turning him loose soon...theey can reach twelve feet in height i am told...the jerusalem artichokes have a challenger for the verticality crown...

the everbearing strawberries are bearing...

the four corners potatoes are looking robust...

and the largest is signaling an attempt to bloom...these are new to me, however i would presume if the blooms hold there may be four corners potato fruits in the offing...i will keep my expectations in check...potatoes produce fruits rarely ( around here at any rate...cool, wet weather seems to be a requirement )..and these are of the same family...more news as it occurs...

there are tomatoes...

and the hopi blue maize is looking sturdy, if short.

beans

when out into the rural area east of here to visit one of my daughters and while i was there i had a look at what, this year, is a bean field and was the scene of last october's combine adventure...

the corn stubble clearly indicates a no-til planting...

the ears, with kernels intact, shows that combines are not 100% efficient ( to be expected on presumes, they are anthropogenic ) and the stubble the combine spit out on the field further confirms no-til...

in the past i have found volunteer corn growing virtually directly from the ear...

not so today in the bean field...

or in what is either my daughter's yard encroaching on the field...or the corn colonizing the lawn...either wat we have volunteers from what i am assuming is hybrid corn...if it survives it will of interest to see if it produces...

and, briefly.here at home there is deliberately planted hopi blue maize...

and teosinte coming along.

there seems to be no escaping spuds anymore

the lawn at the campus garden is making it clear that there has been rain of late...we will see how long that keeps up...

rain or not this asparagus is dying back and it is far too early for that...i am uncertain of what is up here...the spear is not broken so there must be something else at work...the rest seems to be fine...this too we will wait and see about...

the spuds are looking well...

the soil is moist up to the surface...so no watering...

some of the spuds have finished up...so...

there was a harvest...

three plants...two pounds two ounces of tubers...and a few drops to plant...and i left the smallest ones in the bed as volunteers...

an important correspondent to this blog will be pleased at the alfalfa's continuing disdain...

it is still blooming away...

and attracting visitors...

however many of the blooms have gone to seed...

and i do not think all the yellow in the leaves is from overwatering...there are early hints of autumn in the air...

irrespective of what event time is hinting at the alfalfa still stubbornly goes about the business of establishing new stands around the garden...another determined perennial.