sharply warmer

volatility extends well beyond the market and oil prices ( which are, wiser heads than mine say, "unsustainable at current price levels"...inclined to agree...it isn't an unlimited commodity...finite supply + continued consumption = higher prices...simple free market math...but that's another post...and, probably, a different blog )...it is present in the climate in my back yard which, after short dip in temperatures, has returned to unseasonably high temperatures and rain...plants are confused ( although many respond to day length and not temperature...those have died back or are dormant ) the curly kale is booming along....i found a garlic bulb hanging pout of a deteriorating peat pot...it was one of the red inchelium aerial bulb i planted in september...the weather has it chugging along towards sprouting...i found it a new home...the garlic is being obdurate elsewhere as well as it continues to insist on poking up through the mulch...if there ever is winter i will add more straw...if winter fails to materialize there will be finished garlic in april...hard to call this one so far...there are still unshattered teosinte seeds out there...hanging around the ears..even if they are viable ( and i have my doubts )they need some cycles of cold to break dormancy...which the ramps i planted last autumn need as well...and the eastern gamagrass seed i am trying to "naturalize" out there...this "el nino" will be disruptive of more than a white christmas...drought next summer?...don't count it out

netted

pretty much a maintenance trip today with a small project...some potato fruits ( top photo ) are left on the vine and i would like to see some mature there...i have netted some at home to keep the critters off and so i transferred the idea to the community garden ( second and third photos )..so much for the project..watered and did some weeding and as i roamed the garden took a look at things...the curly kale in the fourth photo had a distinctly palmy look to it...good to see it being used...the jerusalem artichoke blooms are beginning to proliferate and will do so for some time...i foresee dead heading in the near future...cukes ( as if i needed to say sixth photo ) are proliferating as well...some large ones ready to go...last two photos are longer shots of the garden at nearly mid season...things will begin to thin out soon enough as the spuds finish...it is too late to plant much beyond garlic in septembner and them begin to plant green manures/cover crops for the winter...still the beans and tomatoes will go until the first hard frost and then there's the sunchoke dig...still a season out there.

a stroll down the beds II

the next occupied bed along is populated with curly kale ( parker! call sit a super plant )...a stand of garlic and several pepper plants...the pepper shave been blooming for a while and at least one has come to fruition as you can see in the second photo...the bed in the third photo has some potatoes (!) but it also contains a true perennial in the form of asparagus...the transplant from the bed of my truck this spring ( fourth photo ) shocked badly but the asparagus has proved to be resilient and it has bounced back and greened nicely much like the ones i transplanted last season did...some of those are in the last two photos and they all have multiple spears feeding the roots...i have commented before about how pleased i am about this...that still stands.