mayday spuds

it was reasonably temperate this morning so i went out back...

picked out a bed...cleaned it...turned it under...and raked it as level as possible...

leaving the onions...

and rhubarb intact ( although i cannot explain why i left the rhubarb..or even why it was planted in the first place for that matter )

then i brought thirty-three chitting spuds up from the plant room and planted them ( not in neat little rows )...

around the yard other activity is on the rise...the wild strawberries are beginning to bloom...

the egyptian walking onions and winter vetch are successfully cohabiting...

there is alfalfa waiting for the leaf cutter bees to arrive...

the wheat...

and winter rye are coming along well...

the brusels sprouts are unafraid...

and there are a multiplicity of ramps...including the one that has grown from seed and is beginning to leaf...after late april snows, spring would, at least tentatively, seem to have arrived...there will be more spuds in containers later, including the government tubers...there will, i hope, be more of everything...we'll see.

green around the yard

because inter species concern and cooperation probably shouldn't be reserved to one conscience salving day a year

brussels sprouts

hard red spring wheat

einkorn wheat

emmer wheat...

wonter rye...

ramps...

egyptian walking onions...

alfalfa to set nitrogen and provide nesting material for the solitary bees as well as another nitrogen setting legume, winter vetch

2018 unspring

it is mid-april and spring has shown some of the "vernal tendencies" that so annoyed de quincey...there are five varieties of wheat up aand running pout in the back...

and the thoroughly unexpected sprouts are doing okay...

the strawberries imported from new york are all evincing new growth...

while the ramps in the leaf litter on the north side of the house are happily believing they are still in the woods...all the cold hardy varieties are perfectly at home...and that's the point...

april may be the "cruelest month" but still, in what was a normal year in the past, temperatures had usually moderated to a degree ( or two ) by now and this season they really have not...it has been a cold spring...

and, of late, it has turned wet...it has been raining ( there is standing water in my yard...which isn't that unusual...except for the fact that we have a very sandy sub-soil and water tends to drain away very quickly...usually...there has been a lot of rain )for better than twenty-four hours now and it seems determined to continue...

at least that is what the earthworms ( always a welcome sight ) that it is driving tot he surface all over the yard are telling me..so the cold hardy, from the asparagus in the community garden tot he sprouts out back, are well at home in april...but i am wondering just how long this will go on...it won't matter for the annuals like tomatoes or peppers that i plan to transplant whenever it is suitable...and the maize probably will be alright ( the squirrels are going to eat it anyway )...there are those things i plant to grow from direct sown seed though...like sweet clover and teosinte...that will have to wait until it warms...and the cold sensitive tubers like mashua and yacon that have long seasons...and the teosinte for that matter...its season seems to go on for ever...all of which may have truncated seasons if this doesn't change soon...true it is only mid-april...but, from another standpoint, it is already mid-april and there are many of us who are weary of being cooped up in the basement...time to get outside.

i thought the season was stalled...

march was a cold month and i doubt much of anyone would call the temperatures of early april harbingers of spring...

there is , however, more movement out in the back yard than i first perceived...the unexpected brussels sprouts are...well..sprouting...

and a few more ramps have joined in the effort to produce leaves...

i had found what seemed to be exactly one germinated wheat seed earlier this week and thought that was what i had ( disappointingly ) found again this evening...

until i got in and began to look at the photos and realized that the camera saw what my eyes could not...there are multiple small, green shoots across all five varieties in the bed...small and growing slowly..but there...which alleviated the disappointment to a large degree...

there are a number of irises up as well...the flowers know it's spring even if the weather does not.

indecision revisited

the temperature in my back yard remains somewhat atypical for nearing the end of january in these parts...

the imported wild strawberries are seeming to be alright with the anomaly..

as are the local wilds...

and the winter rye was probably going to persevere no matter what...

brussels sprouts are biennials so their overwintering last year was to be expected...and, while some of the stalks are clearly finished, these two seem to be very green for january even though they too were planted in 2016...i wouldn't expect a third year from these...they flowered and i am assuming, set seed so i could look for volunteers in spring...we will be keeping an eye on these two anyway...

the leaf mulch on the ramp bed has irrupted in very green lichen ( green is a theme for this month seemingly ) as the mulch begins to break down ( processes in the garden slow considerably at times but rarely seem to stop ) which will, i hope, please the ramps,...

as i was pulling back the mulch on the ramp bed to have a look underneath this popped up...it is no ramp..looks more like some sort of a grass...its presence seems to be a commentary on the month...and the season so far.