meteorological autumn

it is saturday so i was out to the garden early...it has rained overnight with enough precipitation to preclude the need to water so i stopped by just to have a look around just before the harvest days event rolls in on tuesday...( noon til two p.m. for the interested...unless there is inclement weather..which strikes me as odd since the weather is a serious part of the garden and the plants seem to take it pretty well in stride )...things were damp...

autumnal signs are multiplying...the cucumber vines are pretty much finished...the orange cucumbers may be holding some viable seed however...some are disintegrating in the beds...there may be no need to plant next spring...there may be multiple volunteers...

the asparagus is fine even though it has been invaded front and back by squash vines...no worries...those woody stems can handle it...

no new spears to report...however the berries ate still ripening...seed soon...

difficult as it may be to see in the photo, one of the potato plants in the back of the asparagus bed was finished..it yielded enough elmer's blue fingerling spuds to serve as a side with lunch sometime...and the smaller ones can be used as seed...

most of the cornstalks are still standing...

some are not...

most of the ones left standing have been worked over by the squirrels looking for lunch...except for that multi-colored dent someone opened but no one will touch...too much starch, too little flavor apparently...

as a final note, that marker of climate change...the non-native carolina horse nettle is thriving on the o=south end of the inland sea...it has moved in...colonized..and is here to stay...one presumes birds to be the vector of its spread to the area...however it arrived, it has settled in for a stay.

clearer signals

almost two and a half inches of rain monday night into tuesday morning...

and another three eights in about twenty minutes this morning precluded any need to water during this morning's garden run...

the rain did not lessen the deepening signs of autumn...

the onset of fall has not precluded continuing activity in the garden though and some of it is unfortunate...there are many totally overripe cucumbers that may be good for collecting seeds but are certainly inedible... and the colony of carolina horse nettle has a few robust individuals working hard at producing seed...whether they manage to to not isn't much of an issue...in the absence of an herbicide they are not going anywhere... the other half of the good/bad dichotomy is better represented ( usually is in the garden )...the pollinators are still hard at work helping the squash along to fruition...

the asparagus is still going well and seems to be working both ends of the season...it has put up another august spear...

it is also producing seed "berries" that are rapidly maturing...i have harvested a few to continue establishing an asparagus bed in my back yard...there are more coming along for anyone who might be interested...

the maize has both sides of the dichotomy going on in thirty-two square feet...the plants themselves are showing increased signs of autumn colors...

most of the ears are maturing i unmolested ( so far anyway )...

something has had a look at these dents and rejected them...not surprising...i wouldn't eat them either...all soft starch...the colors are interesting though...this is dense yellow #2 grown from seed i got from the usda...as the name implies it should be yellow...the variation in hue tells me there has been cross pollination going on with the heirloom maize...

clearly this ear was more to someone's liking...well chewed and my community informants tell me the chewers are squirrels..."at first i though it was the wind, but it was those squirrels in the corn making it sway"...the community does pay attention tot he garden...i invited him to help himself to whatever was ripe and appealed to his taste...he mentioned squash...i green-lighted the acquisition...

there has been more than gnawing going on...a few husks have been ripped wide open and the ears have vanished...and in the case of the third photo the ear is gone in its entirety...hopefully no one took it home to eat...these are all dents or flints...they will either be of a poor flavor or impossible to chew...

finally, harvest days are coming up next month...stop by the garden if you can...there should be some interesting conversation.