eastern gamagrass

it's been something of a peculiar season so far and it doesn't seem to be letting up...the mild winter and irrationally warm march have everything in an odd state...the gamagrass is nor excetion...the top photo shows it is humming along...nearly two feet tall and nicely greened up...the second photo is of seed head forming and it's fairly early for this particular slow moving grass...the second clump ( on the north side of the garden, third photo ) was concealing a second stand of volunteer spring wheat that i discovered this evening...so there's more to harvest in a month or so...fourth photo is of an absolute rope of chinese yam vines that have grown up all around the original two plants...not harvesting last autumn saved some wear and tear on things like the intermediate wheat grass but the stored energy that they have may make them every bit as difficult to control as the jerusalem artichokes are...it's only the middle of may, one can only wonder what august will be like...the bottom photo is the totemic improbable teosinte...i will be repeating my heavy mulching of the roots this autumn...the potted plants that i overwintered in the basement have shown me that this plant does have a period of dormancy despite being a sub-tropical perennial...the potted plants died back completely by february but i continued to water the roots once a week...i put the pots outside a week ago and one has four green shoots up and the other has six...some of these have already developed a second leaf so my hope is that by re-potting them during their next dormancy i can expand their root systems and, hopefully, get them to flower and seed...unrealistic perhaps, but we all need goals...potatoes, radishes, beets, snow peas, scarlet runner beans, jerusalem artichokes, chinese yams, asparagus. gamagrass, and wheat all up and running and my son just planted soybeans in the back yard today...maize by the end of the month and i have garlic on the way ( not here yet coach...email when it arrives )...theres more to plant later in the season as well...busy summer.

volunteers

drove over to campus after work just to check up on things and douse the garden with water...as i was looking around i noticed that there are volunteers there as well as here at home...i didn't plant any spring wheat this season but the top photo is exactly that...a small stand that is identifiable by the long awns on the seed heads...( winter wheat has much shorter awns )...then i went to photograph the elusive northern tepehuan teosinte ( elusive mostly because it blend in with the background so well it's difficult to see ) i found a volunteer potato in there...i find this really weird mostly because i grew potatoes in that particular part of the garden in 2010 and not since ( three year rotation because of disease and pests ) so i am at a loss to explain a volunteer that waited two years...but if that's what has happened it must be possible...the third photo is of a rope of chinese yam vines that have taken to the trellis with reckless abandon...there may be a need to expand it if this keeps up...the fourth phot is of the north side of the garden with gamagrass, teosint, and jerusalem artichokes all doing well...and the last photo is the obligatory teosinte close-up...i told my academic advisor it may well become totemic for the garden...and why not? a "wild and weedy ancestor" of the maize i will be planting later this month and a perennial to boot...not too bad a symbol for the project...if you ask me anyway.

potato patch

the potato patch gets its own post since i couldn't fit the photos in the last one...the top photo is an isla caucahua potato plant that i got from the usda ( all of which are up and running here at home )...the next two are red nordlands i got from oregon and planted last month..all forty-two are up...along with the government potatoes and the four volunteers ( i found yet another one ) i have forty-nine potatoes going which may not be all that much comparatively but we're talking about my suburban back yard...i am geeked if no-one else is...the fourth photo is of a butterfly that came to rest while i was out there...i always like to photograph visitors so i took a few before it flittered off...the bottom photo is of the primitibve cultivar" negra ojosa...aptly named due ( and this is amateur supposition about folk taxonomy ), i imagine, because of its much darker color..we'll see if that holds up as they mature and as i do more research.

viable seed

even though i haven't planted the heirloom maize yet ( oaxacan green dent on the left, hopi blue flour on the right ) i assume it is viable ...certainly the seed from winslow maine is good...the second photo is of a row of snow peas, the third is turnips, the fourth is a row of radishes, and the last is some beets...there are cucumbers, scarlet runner beans, and sunflowers out there too...there is still acorn and spaghetti squash, kohlarabi, and brussels sprouts to go in as the crops cycle through...a busy season ahead and plans in the works for a basement root cellar...the plans don't seem overly complex...we'll see if my grandfather's carpentry skills are heritable of if they rely on talent and learning isntead

delineation

an unfortunate mowing incident on campus last week has goaded me into action...i invested seven bucks in some grade stakes at a local home improvement store at six this morning and i was on campus by seven where i invested a couple of hours of work with a spade...cut a clear line between the university lawn and the garden...filled the low spots in with compost...and used some of the grade stakes and some jute twine to reinforce the delineation...i spaded out a line much earlier last season and still lost some asparagus...and that's what took the biggest hit again this year...hopefully this will put this issue to rest...while i was spreading out the compost i hilled the potatoes ( second photo ) i only hilled potatoes a few times last season...this season i believe i will do so more frequently just to see what impact ( if any ) that has on tuber production...it will also feed the plants so it probably can't hurt...the improbable zea diploperennis in the third photo is doing well...i am curious to see how tall it will get this year...some was six feet or better last year where it was out form under the shadow of the jerusalem artichokes...which are the fourth photo ...a fair stand this season though their closeness may impact tuber production...i haven't culled nearly as many rouges this year...i had them planted closely together last season as well and the lack of rouges this season tells me that the plants colonized a smaller area because of competition for space...the bottom photo is the perennial garden project around nine this morning with rain threatening but seemingly holding off to the north...so i watered anyway just to be safe.

delineation photo appendix

top photo is of wheat seed heads...the next two are vines from a couple of very robust plants that are filling in the trellis early this year and are beginning to leaf...the fourth is the stand of improbable teosinte amd the bottom photo is a doomed yam about to be engulfed from two sides by jerusalem artichokes.

backyard plants

all sorts of stuff up out back with more on the way...the top photo is a couple o raised beds of winter wheat...the wheat out back is running a couple of weeks behind the wheat on campus but has finally developed seed heads...still looking for a harvest next month and a replanting of the seed in october after the cowpeas run their course ( the inoculant i ordered to t oreat the cowpea seeds to enhance the growth of rhyzobia bacteria has arrived...we will be intensifying the effect of the green manure out back...but, i think, not on campus...that will have to occur with out and human intervention )..the second photo is today's good news...the primitive cultivar negra ojosa has come up in the half barrel...it's still fairly small, but it looks quite a bit darker in color than the red nordland in the third photo...an intermediate step in domestication that has been improved in some characteristics ( it is edible for instance where as the alkaloids in wild potatoes make them too bitter [ and possibly toxic] to eat ) but hasn't been developed into a landrace...hoping for some identifiable morphological differences besides a darker color...there will be more photos...the fourth photo is of one of the eleven zea diploperennis plants up out there...i put the pots with the roots from the basement teosinte out on the south side of the house ( the eventually went dormant ) and i am pleased to say that they have both put out new growth and seem headed for a second season..admittedly not as improbable as the campus teosinte's second season but it's encouraging to know that i may actually be able to winter them over indoors for multiple seasons...the last photo is of a raised bed chock full of jerusalem artichokes...there are thirty of them spread out over the yard working on overcoming the rhyzome barriers i put in last year...tenaciously invasive devils..be forewarned...there ar eplants i didn't upload photos of...snow peas, scarlet runner beans, sunflowers, turnips, beets, radishes are all up...squash will be in soon...and i hope my hopi blue four corn seed arrives soon...that will go on campus along with some green oaxacan dent...more as it comes up...