mother's day out back

with seventeen trees in my back yard and five in the front areas of full sun are at a premium and confined to the south side of the yard and house...since part of that is a driveway i have taken to growing what needs full sun in containers...

so i purchased a couple of twenty gallon totes, which were cheap since they did not have lids...shipping and/or ordering error one supposes...drilled drainage holes in the bottoms and covered them with a thin layer of garden soil...

i had cut some red nordland seed potatoes yesterday to allow them to callous...i put them in one container and covered them with more garden soil...

i did the same with some russian banana fingerling potatoes which i did not cut and callous...

and i gave them a shot of water with marigold's help...i will move them into the sun and as they break surface bury them again until they reach the top of the containers...and we will see how well this works ( or not )...

elsewhere around the yard, mason bees are just waking up and getting to work...so far they have filled seventy-five tbes in two bee houses with larvae...the next generation is well under way...

the asparagus continues to produce new spears which i am harvesting although i have left a few to "fern" early to feed the roots...

the ramps on the north side of the house are doing well...hoping for bunching and for flowers both...

the mooseberry bush ( aka high bush cranberry for those of you berift of the bullwinkle j. mooose reference ) is blooming...

the strawberries are blooming as well and beginning to bear fruit...

a dense stand of jerusalem artichokes in one corner of a bed will need close monitoring or they will take over...

the first chinese yam vine of the year has popped up...there will be more...another colonizer...

and, finally, the potato that had been under the lights in the basement has been outside for going on a week...it has clearly shocked and is expressing its ambivalence about the environment it finds itself in...i can relate...more as it comes up.

mason bees

it is a sunny saturday here with temperatures near sixty degrees ( fahrenheit )...flowers are blooming and today i have seen spring bees taking advantage of the opportunity to begin moving their dna to a new generation...

they are fast and somewhat skittish...i do believe that simply my presence disturbs them...and having marigold nosing around pondering what one might taste like doesn't help getting a decent photo ( actually marigold is part of the reason there are mason bees around...as the name implies the bees use clayey soil in their nesting process and marigold, being the terrier she is, opens up a trench in the back yard with little real effort providing ample nesting material )...

the bees are certainly interested in the daffodils and i have noticed them on the crocuses as well...spring has arrived in a number of ways...

aside from the blooms they are showing marked interest in the bee houses around the yard as well...there is an ample supply of them for the mason bees and for the leaf cutters i hope to see later in the summer...so there should be some photos of nesting as spring progresses...we will keep an eye out for those.

bee houses

because the dog ( marigold by name ) is a terrier and is inclined to open up construction-grade excavations in the back yard, mason bees had ample raw material to work with out there in nesting terms last spring...

and so they began to utilize the bee houses i had hung up around the yard...

after the bees' season ended i took them down and stored them in predator-proof bags in the tool shed for the winter...

spring, and mason bee season, is nearly here and since i cout twenty six tubes of mason bee larva waiting to hatch i concluded it was time to bring them out and hang them back up so they don't hatch out in the tool shed...

the soil is thawing...new excavtions are opening up...the yard is ready...all we need are the daffodils and the bees.

new habitat?

got a dog...a terrier with an inherent avocation for digging...she has dug a trench along one side of the yard, although she has mostly abandonded it for a new interest in mole hills, the abandonded trench is not dead...

it has become habitat for at least three nests of ground bees...this is the first time i have noticed them in the yard and i am inclined to believe they have been attracted by the trench since they are digging nests into the trench wall...they are not aggressive, they were buzzing me as i took photos but no one even seemed interested in stinging me ( although they can sting )...so they can stay as far as i am concerned...an auxiliary to the leaf cutters that will arrive next month...

april was "unseasonably warm"...or, perhaps, simply the new "seasonable" and my rain gauge recoreded 4.7 inches of precipitation which exceeds the 2.52 inch average ( yes, i know, averages lie ) for the "normal" april...and with a shade over an inch of rain already in may it seems destined to continue..we will keep an eye on that...

the surviving tesointe plant that has been in the basement most of the winter...

has flowered...i will be keeping an eye out for any swelling in the stem below the flower and for any sign of silks where the leaf just below the bloom meets the stem...seems unlikely to me, however there is hope...

and in other zea news, one of the ten or so zea mays parvaglumis seeds i planted in a container ( remember the digging dog? ) has germinated...i will be watching this and the seed i planted last week on campus as well...more as it comes up.

life ( and sinage ) at the iuncg

i got out to campus early to avoid the parking rush as well as have a look around and try to keep things under control...after i took a hoe to the jerusalem artichokes in the corner box i wandered of to have a look around before i went to work on my turf...

the i u school of medicine has some tomatoes up and running...

the student social work association has tomatoes, peppers, garlic, herbs, and, perhaps, kohlrabi...

and some sunny marigolds...

the citizen's police academy alumni bed would seem to be mono-cropped in collards...

while the anderson library bed is alive with peppers and tomatoes...

when i got to the asparagus bed i found the plants with still some noticeable lean...so i drove in some more garden stakes and straightened them to the extent they would allow ( to think that plants are not willful creatures is to indulge in unrealistic thinking..i would direct your attention to the berry blog for a lesson in plant assertiveness )

the back side of the bed is doing fine...the volunteer potatoes are looking robust, the tomato plant is blooming, and the maize plants are taking root...

when i got to my bed i found a modest outbreak of jerusalem artichokes, most of which i hoed down...i did manage to extract one tuber without damaging the maize however and will be considering a rewilding location soon...

the alfalfa seems to be at least tolerating its confinement...

confinement seems to have had no impact on its production of blooms...and while we are talking blooms...

with its new share of sunlight the pepper plant has made preparations to bloom and the tomato is preceding it in the reproductive derby...

the tallest of the maize plants are coming in at around seven inches so there are still a few weeks between us and the bean planting...we will get there...the season will not stop...

i have two signs in the garden ( thanks amanda! ) which surprises and confused me to a degree...i claim a bed and will happily look after the asparagus...i will do the work...the harvest is an open one...help yourself ( mind the maize when its time comes..if the squirrels won't eat it you probably shouldn't either )

so far so good with a young season...i have pointed out that plants are wilful creatures...and. like us, they are subject to events that are beyond their control...stay tuned...anything could happen....