ancestors always look old in photographs

my rain gauge measured an inch and a half of rain in september and has measured nearly that much in the last two days...october has started with precipitation...it is warm, relatively speaking, for early autumn...the temperatures have not even nearly approached frost warning levels and are expected to reach highs near eighty ( fahrenheit ) this coming week...which means there is till a lot of movement out back...

the stand of northern trepehuan teosinte looks old...like an ancestor in a colorized daguerrotype...like it's october...

which is deceiving since the plants have invested their autumn energy in flowers, silks, ears, and seeds...the warm weather is a plus in their long season ( even if it is an index of worse things for humans as a species )...looking for another year of backyard viable seed production...

some ears on a descendant from earlier in the season for some morphology...

fungi seem to be enjoying the weather...another dryad's saddle has appeared on the elm at the back of the yard...the third one this season on this tree...

a hand for some scale...

there are still bean blossoms and beans making their way along the vines that have moved through the maize and teosinte...there will be beans fresh as a side dish for a while yet...

hot banana peppers are still ripening...

the winter rye and wheat are filling in...even if they have been pummeled by the recent rains...

not to be outdone by the beans the cherry tomatoes are still blooming furiously...the plants are producing still with varying stages of ripeness on display...

the heirlooms had exactly one bloom going...and a few tomatoes, which, as they have been all season, are reluctant to ripen...hopefully they will grow in size and, now that i have had the chemical mechjanism that drives it explained, i will put them in a brown paper bag to ripen when the time comes

never trust the rain III

i was out across a couple of counties this morning doing errands and everywhere i went the sky looked threatening,...

there were grey clouds at the bean field behind the big box stores ( i had need of some bamboo...we will get to that )

from the looks of the dead, brown stalks ticking up above the beans and the brown down the rows i'd say the field has been doused with herbicide...glyphosate or s-metolachlor ( the atrazine of the bean world )...the population of "native plants" in the filed has declined since my last visit...a chemical investment in a crop that may be less than remunerative this season...we will be keeping an eye out...

they don't seem to have sprayed the berm however...these herbicides do have a residual effect...it is not permanent though..the "native plants" will reestablish themselves soon enough...barring another dose of herbicide...the filed is still for sale by the way...had been for years...no takers it seems...

after i purchased my bamboo i headed back west to the community garden...where it was...raining...

the cucumbers and banana peppers were alright with that...

so were the cherry tomatoes and their cousins the spuds behind the asparagus which was replete with raindrops...

my maize is looking robust and the largest of them has to be pushing seven feet in height...they like the compost hill...

the largest one is also in full flower and i believe i see the first sign of ears on the way...

and while we are talking ears...i have a teosinte plant with four branches that is developing ears down the stems and which has begin to lean perilously because of the growing weight...

so i put three of the bamboos in around the plant and circled it with some jute twine just to give it enough support to keep it upright...the support is not rigid...i put the bamboo in with the smaller diameter in ground so it will move in the breeze...it will have the added advantage of being a perch for the dragonflies i have been photographing lately...

as a final note, the ears on that spindly rteosinte plant are developing silks...the zea family is working its season towards fruition all over the county.

the twenty-seventh day of summer

the ramps continue to bloom...

some have already been fertilized and the seeds are cooking...

the spuds continue to bloom and are being visited by pollinators...the weather this summer has been entirely too warm for the formation of potato fruits however and the blooms have been simply falling off the plants...i do have a rotation of plantings to have later harvests...perhaps as the weather cools some may appear...

pollinators are all around the yard...pursuing their own agendas in terms of where to collect...they seem to have a strong preference for native plants...

the asparagus i transplanted a few weeks ago is doing well in its first year as are the other seedlings that came up...al very pleasing to the gardener...

the zucchini are doing well..blooming and producing squash...a change from the disappointing harvests of the past two seasons...

there are beans vining on poles and by the bee house...they are all over the maize as well but the green on green photos make it difficult to discern the difference...no blooms yet and so no beans...we will see what pollinators they attract when the time comes...

the mulberry tree ( not a bush ) is unsurprisingly full of ripening mulberries....and birds as well...

and the catalpa tree is home to any number of concord grapes...couple of months to harvest there...

there are hot banana peppers ready to pick and more on the way...

while the kohlrabi will be ready soon...

veering away from things to eat to "wild and weedy ancestors" that were selectively turned into things you can eat, the potted teosinte ears are beginning to mature...hoping for as good a viability as last season's...

and this teosinte plant has begun to flower...seems a little early to me...however, it the plant wants to get seed production going early i will not argue...

this heirloom maize has tillered, flowered on the main stalk, and is now producing flowers on the tillers...

this one isn't even considering it just yet...varietal behaviors are not consistent...it's alright...there's still time.