closing in on may....

...even if the weather is still changeable...

april twenty-third saw sunny skies and temperatures in the mid eighties ( fahrenheit ) here at the south end of the inland sea...today it is twenty degrees cooler and rainy and there is a frost/freeze warning in effect for next tuesday night...must still be spring...and the cold hardy are still prepared...

out in the east bed in my back yard the asparagus is up and cohabiting with the onions and berries...

and some of those same berries are blooming...this may be premature...and, by the way, the blooms appeared one day earlier than last season...

in more allium news. both the garlic...

and the ramps are looking robust...

and the mooseberry bush is coming into leaf at least a month earlier than last season...one presumes last season was all about roots and this year may see some work above ground...at least one hopes...

meandered over to campus this morning as well...

the alfalfa is a vibrant green and evincing good new growth...blooms and nesting materials for the bees soon enough...

on the back side of the asparagus bed the einkorn wheat is doing well with some fine clusters of little green plants...ancient dna on the rise...

down the aspragus trench on the other side of the bed...

some of the spears had reached harvestable size...

so i did...we will see how this whole frost/freeze business works out later this week.

green and purple

took a trip out to campus this morning to see what ( if anything...it has ben a cold april ) was up and, despite the cold, there is movement...

the alfalfa is clearly green...

while over in the aspragus trench there are...

twenty-five...

spears of various...

shapes and sizes that have broken surface...none of which is near ready for harvest ( it has been a cold april )...

and, happily, on the back side of the bed two rows of einkorn wheat have popped up...

ten thousand year old dna is green again.

the weather...

has been april hereabouts...

and my expectations for little of any movement at the campus garden were thoroughly met...

nothing but last season's stubble was breaking the surface of the snow in the asparagus bed...

the solitary spear i found last trip out was mostly ignoring the snow...

there wasn't a hint of einkorn wheat...

the alfalfa was covered with snow but disinterested...

cold hardy, all it is going to do is utilize the mositure when the snow melts...

out in my yard there are snowy daffodils...

a raft of berry plants showing new growth and waiting out the cold to bloom...

and mooseberry seems to have an icicle on his nose...he will be fine as well, i believe...technically spring, evidently late winter...things may eventually get moving a bit faster...thinking not today though.

sightings

a day off so i wandered out to the campus garden to see what, if anything, was up...

i utilized my new anvil pruners to clean up some of the dead growth from last season around the greening alfalfa...

and then took a look around...

signs are up around the beds...

and, happily, so is the asparagus...two spears are telling me that a little bit of kathy forgey is still on campus even if i may be the only one who recognizes it...unfortunately there is no sign of the einkorn wheat i planted ten days ago...we will exercise patience and give it more time before making a "no-show" call...wandered out into the back yard when i got home...

the daffodils out by the berry ( and onion ) patch are announcing spring is in session...

in the allium world there is garlic coming more visibly out of the straw mulch...

and the ramps appear to have things under control...

while, seeming as though there is a synchronized start signal, there is asparagus ot back as well...season's on.