rocks

got to campus early this morning...

actually saw the alfalfa before the bees did today...

the asparagus remains upright...

and more of the einkorn wheat seed ears are in full flower...

over in my "official" bed...

the maize appears to have fully recovered from the heat...

the soil under the rock mulch i had on the two plants in the corner retained marginally more mositure than the rest of the bed...

i brought along a bucket of rocks of various sizes and since the mulch seemed effective...

and i mulched the rest of that row of maize with them...i chose light colored rocks since i did not want them to absorb heat and dry the soil...i am wondering if i haven't actually exacerbated the corn sweat when it is warm by choosing rocks that will reflect heat back up to the plants...we are in uncertain territory here and i wil be learning as the summer progresses...i can certainly change the color of the rocks if i find it necessary...we will keep an open mind and monitor events...we have options including abandoning the rock mulch if need be..before i left i soaked the beds with the hose and will be back over the weekend to check on how things are coming along...the forecast is calling for moderately seasonal temperatures over the next week so results may take time to form.

rocked

the temperature here today is supposed to be pushing ninety degrees ( fahrenheit ) and there is no rain in the forecast so i took a quick run out to the community garden mostly to add to he rock mulch on the teosinte which i did ( first through sixth photos )...after shot of water yesterday and a coolish evening and night the established teosinte has lost the leaf curl it had developed from transpiration ( seventh )...after i added more rocks to the mulch i watered the plants again in an effort to keep them hydrated through the day...in fact i watered the entire bed for the first time this season...the potatoes ( eighth ) are looking robust and i want to keep them that way...in fact the whole bed looks fairly good ( ninth and tenth ) although i am not very worried about the jerusalem artichokes...the asparagus ( eleventh ) is also prospering and it continues to flower ( twelfth ) and...like the one in the last photo the last of the spears are beginning to "fern"...feeding the roots and reproduction are summer pursuits for them...new spears in the autumn as the weather cools.