a ramp ( and friend ) in three weeks

the current population is fifty-eight...more than half are up...expecting more by month's end.

ramps ( mostly)

it is warm here for the seventh of october...perhaps not unnaturally so...then again forecast highs are in the mid seventies ( fahrenheit ) through mid month..we'll see...

the last of the ramp seeds have been harvested and the bed was beginning to sprout grasses and other non-ramp denizens so it seemed a good day to rework the bed...

the grasses were not the main reason for digging the bed however...over the course of the summer i had noticed that a network of roots had spread across the bed about two inches below the surface, between the ramps and the soil surface...i was concerned that this might inhibit the ramps' ability to break the surface next march so i wanted to clear as much of it as i could...i was pulling this stuff out by the handful and my suspicion is it came along with some commercial compost i purchased when i moved the bed last year...something short of sterile and an object lesson in working with soil amendments form commercial sources...back to the compost bins, right?

i found ninety-five ramp bulbs and some earthworms as i dug...both were welcome...

the plants took two different reproductive routes...some produced seed like the one in my hand with the stem, and others used the classic allium strategy of bunching...i separated the bunched ones...

i planted the separated bulbs ( along with the rest ) three inches deep and about four inches apart in rows...then i took some of the seed i had harvested and broadcast it into the bed...as leaves begin to fall in earnest here i will cover the bed with a mulch of leaves and net it to keep it in place over the winter and wait for march to see what develops...

the stand of winter rye is doing fine...all the plants have multiple leaves...

some have even begun to tiller which should translate into more seed ears next summer...

finally, you didn't expect to get away with out some teosinte, did you?

ramp bed

yesterday i took some of the lumber left over from building the deck back in 2014 and spent part of the morning constructing a bed for ramps to fit the area available on the shady, north side of the house......once i had it in place i went to work on breaking up the turf and roots where the bed sat..they proved to be resistant to the shovel so i took a pick axe tot he area loosening and aerating the soil...once i finished that i put 560 pounds of topsoil and compost in which didn't quite fill the bed to where i wanted it...there was time to redress that today.

ramp retrieval

so this morning i added another 400 pounds of compost and that about got the bed where i wanted it and i moved the project along...i went out to the ramp bed i was so concerned about this past early summer with the plants being exposed to sun almost the whole day ( you will remember the tarp sunshade i rigged up and abandoned )...it was overgrown with biomass so i pulled it..except for three pepper plants that are there...and which between them have produced exactly one pepper...i needn't have worried because as soon as i stuck the spading fork in i began to turn up dormant ramps, including one that had actually bunched and which i separated to plant...so counting that one as two i retrieved 28 ramps from that bed, including one that has gone to seed and has a mature seed in its seed head...that one will go along with the other 7 that have gone to seed in pots along side the house...but we aren't done yet...serendipity plays a role in all this and the ramps i ordered from triplebrook farms arrived in yesterday's mail...another 26 ramps....so if it weren't for the one plant that has gone to seed in the corner of the bed no one would know there are 54 ramps planted there...add in what i may be able to germinate from all that seed and the probability of volunteers in the old bed and next spring could be ramp city around here...i will be mulching this bed with leaves as they fall this autumn...probably from the locust trees...ramps like shade and they like soil that contains a high content of leaf humus...i will be trying to give them what they want.

ramps!

the ramps i ordered arrived today and so were planted today after work...i went out and prepared a bed under the locust trees next to the one i planted a dozen ramps in last autumn...one of those has flowered and is setting seed ( and taking its sweet time...i discovered this bloom sixty-nine days ago...two mature seeds so far )...those seeds have fifty bulbs to back them up for next spring...they came with well developed roots...so i planted them and watered...now i will be raking leaves ( ironic eh starlight? ) to mulch the beds with and provide compost in the spring...hoping for many many wild leeks in march...in related allium news the garlic bed i planted eight days ago has twenty-six of seventy -three plants up and running...heavy mulch there too as winter sets in.