event time...

...tells me there was snow yesterday...

and that today most of it is gone...

except for some icy residual left in places like the rye...

and wheat beds...

it also tells me that, despite a lingering hint of green, it is time to take down the asparagus...

so i did...

and mulched the crowns with a bit of straw and compost...i will be feeding them more heavily in march...

there was a single berry left on one plant...so i planted it...and marked it with a bamboo...we will be looking in on this come spring...stay tuned...

there's still green out there...aerial bulbs from the walking onions are sprouting...there are green berry leaves in the bed yet...probably will be all winter...

and their nascent roots are spending late december looking for some soil.

spuds and grains

headed to the community garden early this morning and found the behemoth maize flowering like its counterparts in the back yard...however, this is not the zea i am writing about or why i went out there...

spuds were my concern...last trip i noted four plants that were finishing up and today was harvest...

there were some fair sized tubers down there...

predation caused some loss, to what i have to think was insects since i dug these by hand and they came out of the ground this way...

despite the losses four plants netted five pounds six and a half ounces of a mix of red and german butterball potatoes, including some small drops for seed...better than a pound a plant...the gardener is content...

out back there is a wealth of green zea mexicana ears...

with green seeds...

a few however...

are finishing up...

so it is safe to say, i think, that there will be a harvest of seed this year...

out in the beds the winter wheat i planted last monday has produced a legion of seedlings...so we are off to a good start...

and after a lonely three days of patient waiting the greeter berry in the rye bed...

has rye to meet and greet...next up, garlic...when it gets here...and rye grass at the campus garden.

last day of september out back

some things are getting started and some things, like the month, are finishing up...ready or not...the winter wheat and rye both have produced second leaves which is an signal that their root systems are well established enough for them to overwinter if, 1.) the temperatures are not too cold or, 2.) we get sufficient snow ( four inches plus ) to insulate them...we'll see..last year they did fine...the year before both failed...gasrdening, like agriculture, can be iffy...

the field peas i left have ceased blooming, however the pods they have produced are thickening and lengthening...it would be nice to have some viable seed...

while we are talking viable seed, i have harvested several hundred teosinte seeds so far...however, for the first time i can remember in the years i have grown teosinte, something is gnawing on the green ears...which only makes sense if you are going to gnaw, the green ears are soft and sweet and the mature seed is hard as a rock...still, the gardener is not pleased...

half of the garlic i have planted has broken surface...still waiting on the rest...mulched with straw they will be fine all winter...

there is a new round of dryad's saddle growth on the old elm tree by the alley...

and the behemoth maize is still growing growths...unfortuantely...

despite being supported with bamboos and twine one of the giants snapped off at ground level in fairly gusty north winds today...

from ground level to the tip of its flower my tape measure says it was pushing eleven feet...which means the larger one is at least twelve...it had to happen...it was unrealistically tall for its support roots and in the wild would have toppled long ago...i am not pleased...still, these things happen.