out back solstice plus one

the first full day of winter is unseasonably warm here...something like thirty six degrees ( farenheit ) above "the average for this day" ( i know, averages lie )...whatever the averages say there is no real possibility of snow for christmas...and, while this may not trouble some, it aint natural...( or, nature isn't what it used to be and there is a "new normal" afoot )...

the berries in the bed of my truck are not complaining and are basking in the sunshine...

as are the native berries on the east side...

and the new york imports and the egyptian walking onions in the south bed...

"cold hardy" is a fine designation for all these plants as i discovered when i made an effort to dig up a jerusalem artichoke and found the ground frozen solid a couple of inches down...no tuber retrieval without a pick-axe...it is warm today however there has been snow and a week of below freezing temperatures in the recent past...late autumn was colder than early winter...

the winter wheat and rye are soaking up the rays today as well...fine for now...we will see if the snow cover is deep enough to get them through the real cold ( one presumes it will arrive )

beyond that all is quiet in the ramp bed ( undisturbed mulch is fine with me )...

there are still a few seeds hanging around the mostly shattered teocintli ears...

and the dryad's saddle that has been quietly consuming a dead portion of an elm back there has seem better days...

about the only other color in the yard is the berries in the hawthorn tree...with the berries, onions, and grains they are in tune with the season...and the birds will be spreading a source of winter food as they move the seeds about.

rather a disappointment

it's mid october and the ramps are dormant...every year i have grown them (so far ) i have removed the native vegetation that takes over when the ramps die back...

i harvested what seed i could find...which was nothing like last year's bumper crop...which was the first clue to the coming disappointment...

after i cleared the surface i systematically dug the bed to find the ramps and remove a network of roots( what sort i do not know ) that invade the bed between the ramps and the soil surface all across the bed each year ( again, so far )...

i put a net around the ramp bed in april when i noticed the surface of the soil being dug...i had suspected predation ( animal or human is undecided ) and today's result would seem to validate that suspicion...i had counted a population of some seventy odd plants last spring but found only thirty-six ramps...these being the largest...could i have missed some? at this point i certainly hope so...

i replanted some of them in the cleared, hoed, and aerated bed in an undisclosed pattern and in undisclosed locations...we will see what spring brings...my hope is i missed any number during the dig...the bed had a surprising population of millipedes... which wasn't a real thrill...

difficult as it may be to clearly discern, the coiled object on my glove is one of the many earthworms i encountered as i searched the bed...always a pleasing sight for a gardener...once the leaves fall there will be a mulch and we will wait for march to see what transpires with this branch of the allium family.

netting the ramps

the last few days when i went out to inspect the ramp bed i have found signs of something either rooting around or bedding down in there...

whatever it might be it has not touched the ramps that have been up for the past week or so...

or the newer ones that have been popping up recently...still...i am deeply interested in perpetuating and expanding the ramp population and in collecting and saving what seed they may produce...so disturbance = annoyance...and as a result...

after work i gathered together materials and spent an hour or so installing a critter net to, hopefully, deter the visitations...we will see...sometimes it works ( the winter rye and wheat remain undisturbed behind their nets ) and sometimes it does not ( birds found weaknesses in nay strawberry netting i tried )...it may be time to turn the cat out into the yard again...old as she is her presence may deter better than a net.

indecision revisited

the temperature in my back yard remains somewhat atypical for nearing the end of january in these parts...

the imported wild strawberries are seeming to be alright with the anomaly..

as are the local wilds...

and the winter rye was probably going to persevere no matter what...

brussels sprouts are biennials so their overwintering last year was to be expected...and, while some of the stalks are clearly finished, these two seem to be very green for january even though they too were planted in 2016...i wouldn't expect a third year from these...they flowered and i am assuming, set seed so i could look for volunteers in spring...we will be keeping an eye on these two anyway...

the leaf mulch on the ramp bed has irrupted in very green lichen ( green is a theme for this month seemingly ) as the mulch begins to break down ( processes in the garden slow considerably at times but rarely seem to stop ) which will, i hope, please the ramps,...

as i was pulling back the mulch on the ramp bed to have a look underneath this popped up...it is no ramp..looks more like some sort of a grass...its presence seems to be a commentary on the month...and the season so far.