around the yard

the concord grapes...

and the seedless...

are both coming along well...the concords will be blooming soon...they produce seeds...i am curious to see if the seedless ones bloom...no seeds, why waste energy blooming? a fair question i hope to answer soon...for myself in nothing else...

in other fruit news, the native berries are beginning to produce...

the new york imports are not far behind...and the mooseberry bush still looks like a dead stick stuck in the ground...i am not pleased...

the garlic ( flanked by the greening intermediate wheatgrass ) is looking robust and will be done soon...

the walking onions i did not pinch off ( about half the population ) are edging closer to blooming and bulbing...

this particular onion, cohabiting with the asparagus, had become somewhat entwined...this could inhibit "walking"...

the winter rye growing in the crack in the patio has produced five fine ears

a bean is up...

and a squash...

you may remeber how pleased i was to find germinated teosinte yesterday...i have even better news today...a mere five days ago i direct sowed a bed with zea mexicana seed just to see what might happen...tough little seeds told me i had to keep the soaked with water...which i did...and the result?

a geeked gardener with at ;east four teosinte seedlings...i did not know what to expect...you should expect more direct sowing.

various backyard denizens

while i was out in back wandering around among the onions...

grapes...

teosinte ears...

and the seven sisters roses...

i found neat little holes in the rose bush leaves...not skeletalized like a japanese beetle would do...neat cut...leaf cutters like fleshy, almost succulent leaves for their cocoons...where there are neat holes there are usually bees...so i went to look...

and i found a busy girl out in one of the alfalfa stands doing what needed to be done...perhaps at least the bees that hatched out before they arrived survived the bee apocalypse...or perhaps some of the remaining cocoons have hatched out in the bee fort...either way, leaf cutters are at work...

and while i was nosing around the roses i found this one flitting about...lots going on in the microcosm...have a look.