an iuncg update

i met parker! out at the garden this morning to have a look around and talk over plans for the near future ( specifically the unmulchuing of the garlic and asparagus as well as cleaning out some of the beds ) somewhere in the first few weeks of march...work in the garden will have to wait since the update is: still dormant...not much to speak going on out there at the moment...the clover in the top two photos is in an exposed position in that a particular box and won't be recovering until said mid-march at the earliest...the same is true of the alfalfa in the next two...they may look like goners but they are both cold hardy perennials ( both legumes as well...nitrogen setting is a family trait ) and will spring back to life with warmer weather and longer days...at a distance the arborvitae looks all goo but there is some die-back around the base that will need to be pruned next trip out...there has been a snow drought here this el nino winter and as soon as the ground thaws i will be beginning an aggressive watering schedule to insure this goes no further...cold it has been but i still find a hint of chlorophyll in the leaves of the brussels sprout plant in the seventh photo ...and though the cauliflower plant in the eighth has fallen over there is still chlorophyll there too...not that i expect any sort of recovery...but it does indicate that the winter here, despite some cold, has been, overall, mild...dry too...more on unmulching day if not before.

just another january day in the garden

it was somewhat colder when i left to take a trip out to the garden this morning ( and is that a bud i see on the twig? thinking so...one more indicator to watch ) and when i arrived i found the alfalfa and turned down again...but not the winter rye...and when i strolled over to the brussels sprouts i found that the large leaf ( which wasn't nearly so large last trip out ) was definitely a bit worse for wear...the smaller leaves down the stem and the ones around the other side were still crisply green and unwilted while some other stalks were evincing new growth as well...temperatures are forecast to moderate in the coming days and return to above freezing...the remnants of the ice/sleet/snow will melt and we will be taking another look around the cold hardy fall crops to see what transpires...the fifth photo is cauliflower by the way...discovered that while i was puttering around...it has been an odd winter so far...you can chalk it up to "el nino" if you like...but what caused such a massive and prolonged one of those?

on the cusp

made and early trip out to the garden and found tim johnson and some of his crew picking up leaves with a rake and a bobcat...they will be taking in the garden hose until spring...i wasn't the only one out at seven...the garden is on the cusp of shutting down...but it's conflicted about it...there are still peppers out there...and there are five cauliflower heads up and running...the garlic beds are looking robust with multiple plants up...they will need mulching soon...it took until november but there are finally brussels sprouts on the move as well...on the other side the asparagus is putting out clear signals that mulching is at hand...mixed signals but the inertia is unmistakable...i mapped out all the beds where potatoes and alfalfa have been grown...potatoes need a three year rotation to prevent the build up of pests and viruses so we won't be planting spuds in those beds until 2018...alflafa is auto-toxic so these beds won't be readily reseeded with alfalfa as a green manure for a few years either...we will be using winter vetch and clover in its stead for the next few years as well...the next step is the mulching...parker! is on fire to help but we have to match schedules...we will..more when that happens.

still open

when i got to the community garden it was just wet...and it looked like no one had been there for a while...perhaps they are laboring under the misapprehension that the garden is done and over in september...not so...there are now four cauliflowers out there and there's still blooms on the roma tomato plant...and an bed with potatoes just chugging away...i pulled up an early blue and found a packed root ball...the collards are still producing and there's a bit of kale and a few peppers till as well as jerusalem artichokes...there's still stuff out there for the hardy souls who are willing to brave the elements... i took some of th egreen manures i started in peat pots out today...their roots are coming through the bottoms of the pots...time to plant...the winter rye will spread rhizomatically, especially in the spring, providing more organic matter for the soil...i threw in some seed as well...if it doesn't germinate now some will in spring...i also put a couple in the biology club bed ( hope that's okay harold! )...we're working on next season as well...i counted thirty-eight garlic plants up and running...it will be time to mulch those and the asparagus fairly soon...next weekend perhaps...you can join parker! and i if you like.

survivors

it was a warm tuesday here...but the micro climate in my back yard was around thirty-three degrees ( fahrenheit ) early saturday morning...i had covered the vulnerable plants in my back yard but did not have the luxury of the time to run out to the community garden to do so there...in fact today was the first chance i had to check up on things out there...there were a few plants...like the asparagus and the brussels sprouts...i knew would shrug off a frost...some others i wasn't so sure about...garlic could care less about frost and there are twenty-seven plants in varying stages of development up and running ( top photo )...the jalapeno peppers seemed okay but a hard frost will see their end and the banana peppers in the interior of the plants came through fine ( third photo ) but the exterior ones look a little frost bit ( fourth )...the curly kale is still producing and the cauliflower wasn't fazed by the cold either...there are a lot of late, green tomatoes out there...i doubt they will have time to ripen on the vine but picked and ripened in paper bags on a window sill will do just as well...the green manures are designed to winter over so they couldn't care less about frost...they are filling in well and should be fixing nitrogen already...they'll do more of that in the spring before they are turned under to add organic matter to keep the worms happy and doing their plowing/aerating work...the geraniums are still around too...a little late for japanese beetles so their repellent/trap crop duties are done...but the aesthetics are just fine...we're good at the garden today.

transition

a maintenance ( there are still things to water 0 and inspection run out to the garden this morning shows seasons melding into one another...the 2015 season still has production going on...there are still jalapeno and banana peppers out there and the single cauliflower plant that produced is still working on a head...and that bed of spuds is still holding on for all it's worth...refusing to die back until hard frost...while that's going on next season soil is taking shape in the form of the green manures that re establishing themselves...fairly lush in the cool october weather, they will be the basis for fertility in 2016...next season's garlic population continues to expand...twenty-five plants up in two beds...there will be mulching soon enough...the last photo is a late season geranium...still going.

gradual slowdown ( we never close )

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