variables

despite 1.3" of rain earlier this week...

the weather forecast in terms of rain is grim...

and the drought monitor forecast for the next three months is...extreme drought...so...my garden beds will survive...one wonders how the bi-polar monoculture in the indistrial fields will be doing...and what the price of corn and soy beans will be like soon...specifically probably unpreidictable, however one surmises they cost will not go down...

out in the back the wheat on the compost pile is doing just fine...

the mulberries are in various states of ripeness...( the ripe ones are both seedy and sweet )...

the concord grapes in the fir tree are coming along...

as are the seedless grapes on the trellis...we will be getting back to these soon...

the berry plants are throwing stolons out everywhere...

while the bee hatchery is quiet...that will chage as the temperatures rise...

the deer fence i put up around the teosinte and maize beds seems to be working...

the damage to both has ceased...at least for the nonce...

and damage and loss are the subject of the rest of this post...mooseberry seems to be hosting some aphid herding ants and they seem to be impeding the new growth on this stem...this will be ending...they can move to the teosinte when it matures...it does not seem to mind them...

as i said, the grapes are coming along...and, as last years bird tape experiment was a dismal failure, this year i went in a different direction...

i purchased some netting...

and covered the vines on the trellis...

i began to cover the concords in the fir tree as well...however this is going to take some thought, experimentation, and a bit more work to see through...more as it comes up

early july yard

my back yard received half an inch of rain yesterday...

and temperatures are "seasonable" so after i got home from work i had a look around the back yard...

the maize is robust and more than "knee high" as of the second day of the month ( so is most of the dense yellow #2 out in the industrial fields by the by )...

some of its "wild and weedy ancestor" teosinte is next to it...not quite as tall...it isn't domesticated and "improved"...still it is looking sturdy...

the asparagus is producing "berries"...

the rye is looking blonder and i can see individual grains...

there's still some green out there though so perhaps another week before harvest...

the surprise grape vine is doing well...

and is getting on with the busines of attaching itself to the fence rather than "native growth" attached to the fence...we are pleased...

finally, bee moms have been diligently gathering pollen and nesting materials, laying eggs, and plugging tubes...

natural craftswomen...

this weathered old bee house ( and please not this is a photo from four days ago i was remiss today ) has twenty-eight plugged tubes of bee larvae and i counted three in the newer bee house just now...the best season on record for bee house useage...i left them both out all winter and the weathering seems to have helped...perhaps the girls appreciate sabi.

vines, rocks, blooms

a day off meant an early trip to the campus garden...

where i found the asparagus...

and the einkorn wheat upright...

most of the einkorn is green...

some of it is still flowering...

and some of it is close to finishing up...running on event time it has its own schedule...we will work with it...

over in the "offical" bed the rye grass is filling in which will help the bed retain mositure...and which i will turn under in the autumn to put the organic matter back in the bed...

the hopi turquoise in the rock mulch seems happy ( even if the soil under the rocks told me it was time to water...more about that in a bit )...

anticipating they might be i brought along a few more rocks...

and mulched a couple of plants on the opposite side of the bed...

then i more irrigated than watered both the einkorn and the "offical" bed thoroughly ( i try to do things thoroughly...ask around )...

the intransigent alfalfa is in full bloom...

so is the carolina horse nettle...a quick count found a minimum of sixty plants in beds and around the lawn...they are expanding their range...

back home i took a walk around the back yard...there is maize and its ancestor teosinte coming along next to one another...zea family stuff...

the rye is close to finishing up but still showing some green...july sometime i think will be harvest...

what wheat there is...probably enough to replant a bed and hope for snow much earlier than we have gotten it in the past two winters...will come in next month as well...

the mulberry trees are full of ripening mulberries...so is the ground around them...they are a treat straight off the tree...

mooseberry is thriving on a diet of compost and worm castings...the new growth is an index of how well...

the grapes in the fir trees are looking robust...

and just yesterday i was surprised to discover a very young and verdant grape vine out by the back fence near the decaying elm tree...i will be clearing out some of the bittersweet nightshade that's back there and putting down some compost...i don't find a volunteer grapevine ( thanks to a bird no doubt ) every day...we will be nurturing this one along.