ramp story I

a progression.

tweleve

the community garden is looking a bit barren except for the purslane and a bit of alfalfa...that will happen in april when the population of the garden is mostly transplanted annuals..it is not bereft of growth..though it is pretty much what was growing last time i went out there...

there's just more of it...i counted eleven spears of asparagus that have broken surface...

and the garlic that parker! planted in september of 2016, which obviously was not completely harvested, has volunteered for another season...so..garlic can grow as a perennial...

and the twelfth? just broke surface in my backyard..i will be planting asparagus seed i harvested last autumn fro the community garden out there shortly to see if i can repeat the spears from seed i managed to succeed at in the community garden out back.

government spuds and an all wheat trio

this year's government potatoes from the potato introduction station in sturgeon's bay wisconsin arrived today and i am leading off the quartet with a variety called bison because someone i know likes the real thing a lot and they are special...

next up, some non-reds called barbara...

another set of sturdy reds called viking...

and another variety tagged simply DTO-2...an unknown variable in the mix...the weather may moderate soon to the point i feel alright about planting these...they'll stay in the box they came in until then...

as i expected, the wheat blew off yesterday's snow as just another day in the bed...these three leafs of emmer wheat are emblematic of the plant's hardiness...we'll see how things turn out.

16 april...not over yet

chilly...

snow...in the wheat beds...

and in the ramp bed as well...spring is still running a bit behind its time.

2018 unspring

it is mid-april and spring has shown some of the "vernal tendencies" that so annoyed de quincey...there are five varieties of wheat up aand running pout in the back...

and the thoroughly unexpected sprouts are doing okay...

the strawberries imported from new york are all evincing new growth...

while the ramps in the leaf litter on the north side of the house are happily believing they are still in the woods...all the cold hardy varieties are perfectly at home...and that's the point...

april may be the "cruelest month" but still, in what was a normal year in the past, temperatures had usually moderated to a degree ( or two ) by now and this season they really have not...it has been a cold spring...

and, of late, it has turned wet...it has been raining ( there is standing water in my yard...which isn't that unusual...except for the fact that we have a very sandy sub-soil and water tends to drain away very quickly...usually...there has been a lot of rain )for better than twenty-four hours now and it seems determined to continue...

at least that is what the earthworms ( always a welcome sight ) that it is driving tot he surface all over the yard are telling me..so the cold hardy, from the asparagus in the community garden tot he sprouts out back, are well at home in april...but i am wondering just how long this will go on...it won't matter for the annuals like tomatoes or peppers that i plan to transplant whenever it is suitable...and the maize probably will be alright ( the squirrels are going to eat it anyway )...there are those things i plant to grow from direct sown seed though...like sweet clover and teosinte...that will have to wait until it warms...and the cold sensitive tubers like mashua and yacon that have long seasons...and the teosinte for that matter...its season seems to go on for ever...all of which may have truncated seasons if this doesn't change soon...true it is only mid-april...but, from another standpoint, it is already mid-april and there are many of us who are weary of being cooped up in the basement...time to get outside.