mistimed?

october 2021 here has seen tempreatures in the eighties ( fahrenheit ) which, while not unheard of, is still unusual for so many days in a row...today's tempreatures are passing for what is probably "seasonable" these days...still mild when you consider in my younger days it had already seen the first snow by this time...and i am not really complaining...

portions of the winter wheat bed were looking a bit sparse wheat-wise so a bit ago i brodcast more seed into the bed and virtually all the newer wheat now has a second leaf which means we are good for winter...if the snow cooperates and arrives before serious cold sets in...

and a sizable proportion of the garlic i planted is up and running...again, should be good for winter...still, the mild and springl( if not summer ) like weather is having a different set of impacts...

anyone who knows me, or any regular reader of these screeds, knows that the bed of my truck is home to a thriving colony of new york strawberries...

and any annual that finds its way there ( one imagines by bird...only the strawberries were deliberately planted )...this year it has been black nightshade which, since it is autumn, is in the process of dying back...all good so far, however...

finding newly sprouted legumes of some description on the twelfth of october is not...the timing is unnatural...odd...not that i haven't seen soybeans and volunteer corn in harvested fields doing this...this still strikes me as odd...

no doubt these are legumes...there was a bush bean back there last year, however i am thinking these are cow peas sprouted from seed spilled last spring...the mystery is why they took so long to germinate if that is the case and, if not, where did they come from?

they ( there are three ) all had well developed root systems that were running laterally ( there is not a lot of depth to the growth medium in the truck bed )...however well developed roots were not going to help these plants when the real cold hits...so...

it was down to the plant room where i prepared a container...scooped out three holes...augmented them with worm castings...

planted the newcomers and lowered the growlight to the lowest possible position, starting the 2021-2022 indoor season...there wil doubtlessly be spuds later...there are always spuds

so what is this?

the bed of my truck has several years worth of spilled compost, seeds, rhizobia innoculant, and it is open to the weather...and birds...and whatever...so there is a diverse population of plant life back there ( you may recall a jerusalem artichoke a few years back )...some purposeful like the strawberries...most simply random wanderers who took root...lamb's quarters, bunch grasses, pig weed...and this one...when i first noticed it in late may it looked like a spud...i was dismissive of that idea but was having trouble completely dismissing the resemblance it has to a potato...then today...

i noticed it was bloming and the blooms leave no doubt that this is a nightshade...solanum...the features of those flowers are unmistakable...here, just look around the yard...

carolina horse nettle...a nightshade...

a tomato...another nightshade whose leaves and stems are loaded with solanine...

bittersweet nightshade ( do i have to add more? )...

and as the kicker, spud blooms and buds from back there last year ( so far this year the weather has been too confusing for them in blooming terms...hot, dry...then wet and cool...they are waiting for a solid trend to evolve...they may have an issue here )...

and blooms and buds from the truck bed today...it is a nightshade...i have no doubts about that...if it is a supd ( one thing i do know is it is not horse nettle...no spines ) it has diminuative blooms compared to an in ground plant ( or even in a container )...then again, it is not in the ground, it's in my truck bed which while obviously livable, isn't exactly natural...so stunted blooms wouldn't be out of the question i imagine...and if it is a spud will there be tubers? i an supposing we will simply have to keep it watered...look for fruits...and see what the roots have to say when it finishes it season...this is not over just yet.

truck bed update

the bean and the chamomile in the bed of my truck have long since finished the season...the ten degree ( fahrenheit ) low we had earlier in the month saw to that...when i moved the layer of maple leaves that had fallen from the trees aside i found that the new york import strawberry i dug up and transplanted to the bed of my truck to keep the bean company eighty-six days ago has not been idle..and seems to be still in action...

the mother of them all is looking healthy...obviously enough sunlight has penetrated the leaf litter...

she has produced three daughters...including one that is fairly recent...

the two elder daughters have given her three granddaughters...

who have, in turn, begat two great granddaughters...

and thoes girls have each contributed a gret great granddaughter...one of which is just taking root this late in the season...bean and cham's descendants will hear stories of their forebearers next season from multiple sources...the populations grows...i knew it would...one wonders if there is enough room in the truck.

some notes on the truck bed

late september finds the truck garden doing fine...bean and chamomile are booming along...

and the entire strawberry tableau speaks of fecundity...

mom is robust and expanding her leaf count...

and with such a a healthy and active mom it comes as no surprise that her first daughter has sprouted a second stolon...her first was getting perilously close to the side of the bed where it might suffer from shade and being too exposed to cold come winter...

so i fashioned a pin from a twig and turned the daughter to be back towards her grandma to be in a more centrally located position...

daughter number two ( someone else is going to have to give them names...keeping track would eventually prove complex..i am not up for it ) has jumped into the reproductive game as well...her stolon has a curious upward tilt...i see a pin soon enough...the colony is not hesitating to expand...the spilled compost in the bed of my truck has not lost its ginger.

first day of autumn

the last night of summer delivered four tenths of an inch of rain to the first day of autumn in my yard...

three tenths fell on the twenty-first so the fungi are blooming...

and a refreshed dryad's saddle is still consuming stumpy in slow motion...

there are still untouched ears of maize out there...

and some not so pristine...

unlike the campus teocintli, none of the seeds....husked or unhusked...have declared their season over...there are seeds clearly visible...harvest in a couple of weeks i think...

tomatoes and peppers are ripe or verging on it...

bees are still working over the marigolds...

the chamomile in the bed of my truck is blooming along...

and the bean is producing seed for me...

the native berries are still blooming ( they like the rain )...

and producing...lots of pollinators still going out there...

and while we are on the subject of berries, the new yorker in my truck continues to stake out new turf before winter...

it has a daughter in full leaf...

that has generated a stolon that has gone from this...

to this...

to this in four day's time...

additionally, a second stolon from the mother plant has produced a second daughter...we are not quite finished even if autumn is officially here.