robust bed

took a run out to the community garden after work to have a look around and i am okay with what i found...the zea mays parvaglumis ( top photo ) that survived is thriving and i have a few more seeds germinating in an effort to provide it with some company...the rock mulch seems to be holding moisture for the plant and i dressed it with some compost last time out...the potatoes are just fine ( second ) and growing well..no leaves on the new ones i planted last week...they will come along...the relentless jerusalem artichokes ( third ) are moving their season along...they have almost subsumed the walking onion ( fourth ) however the winter rye is still keeping ahead of them ( fifth and sixth )...down the row the asparagus has pretty much past the harvesting season...( seventh ) it has "ferned" out and is now flowering ( eighth )...hoping to see berries eventually...with reproduction the new focus there won't be any new spears until autumn...just in time for season's end.

spuds, roots, and grass flowers

i decided to spend some time planting yet more spuds ( i believe i am now up to forty-six ) so i cleaned out some containers and let them dry in the sun and then went to work...there were three plants in peat pots still on the deck so those got homes first...the smaller container got an unidentified ( first photo ), viney looking spud which we may eventually id...or not...the second got a cobb lee ( second photo ) and a yukon gold ( third photo ) from bins in the basement and the third got two elmer's blue from the deck ( fourth and fifth )...the two elemr's blue are of radically different sizes and there is a reason for that and it has had an impact on th eplants...it seems pretty clear to me that the smaller of the two ( sixth photo ) was getting more sunlight on the deck ( there are many plants out there yet...there is still work to do ) and as a result put a lot more energy into establishing a root system ( seventh photo )...it was significantly pot bound and i took the peat pot completely off and scrubbed the exterior of the roots lose...the larger plant ( eighth ) was in a shadier area and spent more energy on leaves and stems to collect light, so...fewer roots ( ninth )...while plants need varying amounts of light ( ramps are averse to too much...so is ginseng ) these two plants of the same variety show what a variation in light would do...my best bet is that the smaller plant will produce more tubers...we will see if the larger can catch up root wise...finally the last two photos are of wheat ( tenth ) and winter rye ( eleventh ) flowering...just to prove grasses do flower.

thorns and a bit of a break

after i transplanted it yesterday the carolina horsenerttle looked a bit root shocked ( top photo )...this morning it looks a bit peppier and the thorns are put in full force ( second through fourth )...we will be careful around this one...the chinese yam has suffered a broken vine ( fifth ) i found the missing piece ( sixth ) on the ground this morning...no worries...down towards the base of the stem a new vine has sprouted ( seventh )...the plants grow multiple vines s i doubt this was in response to the break, however, a new vine would have appeared...the seventeen leaves on the original vine ( eighth as an example ) will continue to energize the plant...along with whatever energy might be left in an underground tuber ( i will not be digging around for those until fall...the set tubers deep...it is an excavation, not just a dig )...they are resourceful and resilient...the plabt will be fine and the trellis will fill...over in the ramp beds the leaves are dying back and the plants that intend to flower ( ten so far ) are investing their energy there...i am, as always, hopeful of many seeds...we will see.

solanum in the garden

i hadn't been tot he community garden in a few days...life has been militating against a trip but it relented a bit this morning so i went...the fist thing i found was a failure...the replacement tesointe has died ( first photo )....so even though it is late i believe i will germinate a replacement and keep trying...the other plant has deployed a fourth leaf and seems happy enough ( second photo )...and the rest of the bed seems to be doing well...the egyptian walking onion ( third photo ) is almost two feet tall and the aerial bulb is coming along...the spuds ( fourth ) are looking robust and there is an ear of rye ( fifth ) racing to finish before it is subsumed by the growing jerusalem artichokes ( sixth )...i looked in on my government spuds this morning and found the time to plant had arrived ( another trigger for a trip ) so i went and planted five more spuds..a dark red ( seventh ) which is not a government, rather a locally procured seed potato...one from accession bs286 ( eighth ) ..a blue shetland ( ninth )...one from accession gs427...and an early blue ( tenth )...finally i deiscovered some carolina horsenettle growing in the old biology club bed...i took some home..more on that in the next post.

dioscorea and solanum out back

life let me get around to a few things around the yard today too...the chinese yam vine has cleared the top of the cage around the pepper plant by almost three feet( first photo ) ...so i drove in three tomato stakes as the basis for a trellis ( second ) and tied a tier of jute twine around the posts for support ( third ) ...there will be more tiers i am sure...then i trained the vine onto the jute ( fourth ) and that is where it stands until the vine expands its range...then i turned to the carolina horsenettle i brought home from campus...it is a deep rooted perennial ( more on that in a minute ) and i dug out as much of the roots as i could when i i collected it...to give it some depth to root without turning it loose in my yard i too an old five gallon bucked ( fifth ) that had a cracked bottom and drilled a few more drainage holes...then i filled i with am mix of potting soil and compost all the way to the top ( sixth )...with a gloved hand ( the thorns are vicious ) i planted them as deep as the roots i got were long ( seventh and eighth )...they still have the same nasty thorns they had when i found them in the garden last summer ( ninth )..they are a nightshade related directly to potatoes...the blooms in the tenth photo are carolina horsenettle but might as well be potato blossoms...as the name infers the plant is native to he southeast of the country ...how it came here is beyond me and it struck me as odd it was here last year...that a non-native, warm climate plant migrated here and then successfully overwintered to reappear again is, for me, a clear index of climate change...we will see how it takes tot he bucket.