vines and grains

i found a couple of concord grape vines growing through the fence into the neighbor's yard and i wasn't having that so i pulled them back through...

drove in a couple of five foot garden stakes...

drilled a few holes...

strung the stakes with galvanized wire...

and gave them a new home...

they have good new growth at the ends so i don't doubt we will be expanding and improving this...

the surprise grape vine out by the alley...

is going about the business of attaching itself to the fence rather than "native growth"...

these have fine new growth as well so we may need to make a turn before we reach the back gate...

most of the winter rye is finished...

you can see the grain in the ears...however there is a threat of rain today and i do not want to being in soggy rye so harvest will wait for a sunny, breezy day..

the wheat there is is mostly finished as well...it will receive the same treatment as the rye for the same reason...

seen from the top mooseberry is another case of" good new growth"...

there's quirte a bit of green out there like garlic and the sweet clover that is cohabiting...

so the bush may be difficult to pick out...however a diet of compost and worm castings has fendered it far more robust than last season...there's more but it is a day off and i have things to do...we will get to the rest later

vines, rocks, blooms

a day off meant an early trip to the campus garden...

where i found the asparagus...

and the einkorn wheat upright...

most of the einkorn is green...

some of it is still flowering...

and some of it is close to finishing up...running on event time it has its own schedule...we will work with it...

over in the "offical" bed the rye grass is filling in which will help the bed retain mositure...and which i will turn under in the autumn to put the organic matter back in the bed...

the hopi turquoise in the rock mulch seems happy ( even if the soil under the rocks told me it was time to water...more about that in a bit )...

anticipating they might be i brought along a few more rocks...

and mulched a couple of plants on the opposite side of the bed...

then i more irrigated than watered both the einkorn and the "offical" bed thoroughly ( i try to do things thoroughly...ask around )...

the intransigent alfalfa is in full bloom...

so is the carolina horse nettle...a quick count found a minimum of sixty plants in beds and around the lawn...they are expanding their range...

back home i took a walk around the back yard...there is maize and its ancestor teosinte coming along next to one another...zea family stuff...

the rye is close to finishing up but still showing some green...july sometime i think will be harvest...

what wheat there is...probably enough to replant a bed and hope for snow much earlier than we have gotten it in the past two winters...will come in next month as well...

the mulberry trees are full of ripening mulberries...so is the ground around them...they are a treat straight off the tree...

mooseberry is thriving on a diet of compost and worm castings...the new growth is an index of how well...

the grapes in the fir trees are looking robust...

and just yesterday i was surprised to discover a very young and verdant grape vine out by the back fence near the decaying elm tree...i will be clearing out some of the bittersweet nightshade that's back there and putting down some compost...i don't find a volunteer grapevine ( thanks to a bird no doubt ) every day...we will be nurturing this one along.

slow event time at the south end of the inland sea

i have not been to the campus garden since early november so, since i had the time, i took a drive over there this morning just to look around...

things seem reasonably quiet there today...

it looks as if the fabric coveing the asparagus bed is holding up...however last night's lake efect snows have obscured things to the point that verificartion is mostly a guess...

the alfalfa in my bed is being its unruly self and would seem, with the aid of the weight of the snow, to have broken free of the twine...that will need to be cut back and corralled again in the spring...

there is still carolina horse nettle in evidence...

and it clearly intends to use both seed and rhyzomes to continue its colonization efforts...stubborn plant...

it snowed in my back yard as well...

which has provided the winter wheat with a modicum of cover...

even if some of the plants look less than happy about the amount...

the rye seems more content with events...

down in the basement there are some robust looking spuds under the lights...my expectations for production are minimal...however they at least have an opportunity...

the cohabiting rye is looking a might "leggy" and much of it has fallen over...most of the plants have developed second leaves though and so they are progressing...again i expect little to nothing in the way of ears...still we wil give them a chance...it is quiet here these days...goes with the season and a deliberate curtailment of basement growth...more as it comes up.