pheonix

this twenty-five year old concord grape plant ( rootstock? )...

that produced these vines that trailed along the ground and up into the elm and fir trees that grew next to it...

was reduced to this stump by the clowns that installed the new fence last fall even though i explicitly pointed it out as something i wanted left intact...i was somewhat irritated...actually still am although that has been mitigated to a fair extent becuse...

the "stump" has produced a new vine...the roots live on which "pleases me mightily...i have fenced it off until i can train it into the trees again, mostly to keep marigold ( the dog ) from digging around it...we will be keeping a close watch on this one...

in another surprise i discovered a second vine growing under the fir trees which has already found its way to the tree branches...doubly pleased...i surmise this took root from a fallen grape from a last season...serendipitous...

in the meantime the grapes on the south side of the house that were mislabeled as seedless but are not have bloomed and are on their way to grapehood...

mulberries are ripening on the trees ( there are three back there ) and falling to the ground...they are a bit on the tart side still...the birds will eat them anyway...so will i...

and last in this fruitful discussion, the strawberries are blooming and producing...fruit and daughters

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.

mid-may

middle of the month and the everbearing strawbnerries are...bearing...which suits me some and the birds to a greater extent...

the basement teosinte has moved to the great outdoors and continues to flower...however, despite a swelling in the stem below the bloom i cannot detect anything like silks and so doubt the possibility of seed...viable or not...

some of the five containerized teosinte plants ( there is a dog here now ) are working a third leaf...pleasing...

the grape vines on the trellis and the ones in the caltalpa tree are leafing out...

as are the ones in the fir trees...

and the concord is showing good new vine growth as well...

my mooseberry bush ( high bush cranberry for those of you who did not grow up with rocky and bullwinkle ) is being skeletalized by what i believe to be virburnum leaf beetles....i try to be organic and will use neem oil if and when the japanese beetles appear however that will not control these beetles so i have utilized a systemic insecticide which i applied around the base of the plant and i have been dousing it with insecticidal soap...we will give mooseberry every chance we can even if it transgresses some tenets...

mason bees are working away at filling nesting tubes in bee houses scattered around the yard...good news and i will need to place more around to accomodate the leaf cutters coming next month...

and, finally, it has been rainy here...last month we received more than double the april avarage rainfall ( i know, averages lie )...and it has been a wet may to date...so...

fungi are popping up all around...and...

the dead elm at the back of the yard is supporting an irruption of dryad's saddles...there's bound to be more going on as the month progresses...we will see what transpires.