last third of march and the second full day of spring

we've already discussed that the daffodils are significantly early and that the asparaagus is on schedule...

there was a dusting of snow this morning and although it has warmed this afternoon, temperatures will be below freezing at night over the next few days...

so the mooseberry bush has stalled...

i did not see a fully opened russian olive blooms until april seventh last year...these began opening yesterday so that leaves us seventeen days earlier this year...

marigold and i were rooting around in the jerusalem artichoke bed and we found...

well..roots...this one had sprouted them in three places...

and this ...

had just the one...

these have been breaking soil surface in the first week of may and rooting in march may simply be part of that timeline...the only way to tell is to keep an eye on them and see what pops up and when...so far it is about a fifty/fifty split between on time and early...we will see how that holds.

open

there is asparagus up and running in my back yard...

so since i had some time i wandered over to campus to open the asparagus bed just to see what was what...

there was a bit of frost on the fabric and when i pulled it up it did not seem as though there was much going on...at first...

a closer look showed there was a spear of asparagus that had broken the soil surface...recently given its soil hat...

and over in the southwest corner the alfalfa is beginning to green up...a successful transplant there...

there was no green in the southeast corner...the plant was basically sitting on top of the soil...i would suspect frost heave had pushed it up...

however, when i pulled it up the roots were still supple and moist...

so, since there is some hope for a recovery, i dug a deeper hole and replanted it firmly...we wil be looking at this over the next few weeks to see if the plant can bounce back...they can do that at times...reference the saga of puddles the wheat plant here in this blog from a few years ago...

that done, i turned the back of the bed in an effort to discourage "native growth"...i will be planting back there before the end of the month...i have so sed for emmer and einkorn wheat and will likely throw some barley into the mix...a bed of grain i think is in order...more when we check in on the alfalfa.

what's up

not all that much actually...however there are some notes of interest...

it has been unnaturally warm ( or the new naturally warm ) so far this year and, while my thermometer doesn't show a record breaking temeprature ( seventy-seven degrees fahrenheit ) it is considerably above the average ( i know, averages lie ) of forty-six...what impact this has had i am uncertain...temperature or day length?

the daffodils are in full bloom signifcantly earlier than last season's march thirtieth...

the strawberries are evincing new growth...however thay have been green all winter...

last year the mooseberry bush (high bush cranberry for those of you who did not grow up with rocky and bullwinkle ) was not this far along until the fifth of april...

jerusalem artichokes usually come up in early may...this one looks like it is satrting to produce a root and i will be keeping an eye on it to see what transpires and when...

finally, there was no asparagus up in this bed when i checked two days ago, however there is today...and this is on schedule...so..a mash-up of early, on time, and uncertain start times...we'll see.

over-wintering

most of the corn fields around here look like this in february...

however this one, about a mile down the road, has a crop over-wintering which is something i have not seen in a while...usually the field corn is all in by early december at the latest...there are nay number of reason why this corn is still in the field and there are pros and cons ( just like the rest of life )...it might just be that the farmer didn't get to it before the weather tuned wet and precluded harvesting...field corn is 35 to 40% moisture in the autumn...leaving it out to over-winter naturally reduces the moisture content obviating the need to use ( and pay for ) a grain dryer... it sems clear that the corn in this field is drying...i found more than these husks splitting open and revealing the kernels...

the cold would kill off pests and diseases...and, i am told, the roots releases nutrients beck into the soil...my figures are about twelve pounds of nitrogen per ton of corn cobs and i wonder how much the roots might contain...needs more research... and that is about the limit of pros i can find...on the downside the weather can be deleterious...specifically freezing rain...i've seen tree limbs and tree tops broken off by a coating of ice and corn stalks are not nearly as strong as wood...additionally, the cold is not the only thing opening the husks..

it seem sreasonable to assume that deer have been at work here...eating the corn off the stalk...

and leaving them , fully or partially consumed, on the ground...hungry critters in february...and that is what i could see from the roadside ( i did not wade out into the field...that would be bad manners...and trespassing )... when will this field be harvested? and how close to planting will that be? this will be a bean field next season and those usually don't plant until june...that doesn't mean a late ( or early? ) harvest won't interfere with planting some other crop in some other field...i believe farmers have more than enough to worry about in good times and that leaving a crop out in winter would simply add to that burden...than again i am not a farmer...just someone interested in the overall impact of the neolithic revolution.

natural? unnatural? new natural?

something like a four degree difference from one side of the yard to the other...or it might just be the thermometers are not calibrated the same...one suspects they were never completely accurate to begin with...that does not conceal the fact that it is near or above fifty degrees ( fahrenheit ) here on the fifteenth of december and that is unusual..or would have been in the past...it may just be what is these days for whatever reason you may wish to attribute it to ( bound to be some deniers out there )...

warm enough that the berry plants i rescued from my old truck before i sold it have decided it's safe to escape the netting i put over them to keep the new puppy ( it has been a busy autumn ) from digging them up ( a terrier, she likes to dig and fresly turned soil is irresistable ) and seek sunlight and evince new growth...admittedly they stay green all winter and are cold hardy...still, they generally hunker down afer november until march...so there is movement in the yard...

and in the basement the rescue potato is doing well...

as are the zea plants...i begin to suspect that, despite the oddly shaped seeds, these are teosinte...they simply do not look like maize...so..it's december and, for the most part, quiet...we will see how the remainder of the month goes weather-wise and what the yard does...the basement would seem to be prety stable for the nonce.