out back

out for a tramp around the back yard after work because i could and besides i wanted to take a look around...the top photo is of some spuds in the ground among the alfalfa and winter rye...and the second photo is of some flowering winter rye...there's quite a bit of space devoted to growing green manures and cover crops for seed for the various gardens this coming autumn...it has put some constraints on space for vegetable production but something of a solution has been found...the third photo is of spring wheat...it's not a cover crop or a green manure...i grow it because its neat and it reminds me of the eleusinian mysteries...the fourth photo is of an onion and a spud in a container...a fairly common fried combination...lunch one day fresh from the garden...the nasturtium family mashua is in the fifth photo ( geeked )...yacon makes up the sixth portrait and the seventh is of some young jerusalem artichokes exhibiting a vague familial resemblance to its cousin in the photo above...the last photo is of that "something of a solution"...twenty containers ( and there will be more this month...not all the chitting potatoes or the drops were planted in the various gardens ) on the south side of the house...navigation is becoming tricky.

clover!

if this was the 18th century "enclosure movement" we'd be "in clover" and, possibly, be working on creating a water meadow...as it stands what's up is an invasion of clover in the garden and it is aggressive and it will do in all the grass if it's given the chance...large areas are already subsumed with expansion going on daily...it is getting out of hand...which is fine with me but others may take exception and move to act on this...one thing it has done is lure a multitude of bees to the garden...which is also fine with me...there will be blooms in the beds and a wealth of bees is not something to sneer at...or be afraid of if you are courteous and polite in your approach...no bee was harmed in process of taking these photos and i was not stung...we got along.

asparagus and garlic

the asparagus plant in the first photo has put out a third spear ( second photo ) and the same goes for the plant in the third and fourth photos...there are a few pieces of information contained in that...first the drainage in the bed is, so far, good and the plants are having no trouble expanding their root systems and handling precipitation...second, that the root systems are robust enough that the plants can expend the energy to form additional spears, and third, the new spears will 'fern' and continue feeding the roots in a positive feedback cycle...i am pleased to find a perennial that is adapting to the garden this well and i am hoping for a very productive bed...the bottom photo is of an elegant garlic plant in its heyday...look quick, they will be done soon.

nastrutium = mashua

a bit of nasturtium morphology..the top photo is mashua in the community garden...the second is mashua in my back yard...both are just getting started but you can clearly see the similarities between them and them and the nasturtiums in the half barrel on the south side of the house..the relationship will become more evident as the mashua matures...at time differentiating between them will be difficult.

reclaiming the beeless bee tree

the debauched and defiled mason bee house has dried pout enough that i am no longer concerned about mold inside it so i stuffed it full of reeds again, swathed it in chicken wire, and put it back in place in the locust tree...the leafcutter bee house in the bottom photo is unscathed thus far...whether there are any local bees that may indulge themselves in a new home or if the leafcutter bees will utilize it when ( and if ) they hatch out is beyond my knowing...but that won't stop me form offering the opportunity...there may be some research soon on methodologies of attracting solitary bees...putting out a "vacancy" sign...more if anything pops up

seed heads

it may be meteorological summer but the calendar still says spring and there are quite a few early season seed heads popping up and open out back...the top photo is intermediate wheat grass and the second is spring wheat...a perennial and an annual respectively that the land institute in kansas is trying to cross breed to create a perennial grain....they have had some success and you should look into their web site if you are interested...the bottom two photos are of flowering rye seed heads...much like gamagrass which, unfortunately, i am experiencing some difficulty in establishing in my yard...autumn is coning though and there will be a november planting of multiple seeds ( its seed is of a notoriously low viability ) an effort to germinate some seed by utilizing the cold of winter to break dormancy rather than hydrogen peroxide.

tubers and an ancestor

why would i take a tramp through the back yard and not have a look at the "wild and weedy" maize ancestor teosinte? well..i wouldn't..still geeked by it..the containerized spuds in the second photo began in my basement in march and will be done in july sometime..already "hilled" once they will be again soon...more tubers in the yacon ( third photo ) and mashua ( bottom )...a distant sunflower cousin and a nasturtium...both tuber producers and who doesn't love a tuber...i am told the nasturtium flowers grown in gardens ( there are some of those out there too...there will be morphology comparisons )has a "peppery" taste which is what the tubers are said to possess...no real coincidence there...both native to the andes..both cultivated by the inca...anthropology in my back yard...thanks mik and kathy!