wheat maintenance

a brief trip to the garden with specific goals...

first i sowed more wheat seed and gave the bed another thorough soaking...

secondly i had a look at the wheat i planted four days ago...given how well the wheat and rye in my back yard germinated i was thinking this wheat should do as well and it has fulfilled that expectation...four days in and there are multiple sprouts about...

the final thing i wanted to do was check on the asparagus berries...they are ripening quickly...

so i brought in eleven more...so far the plant ( the only female seemingly ) has yielded me twenty-five berries which should translate into at least fifty seeds...there are still more if anyone is interested..if not i will be claiming them all...

difficult as they may be to see here the plant is still blooming as well ( which explains the increasing rather than decreasing number of berries )...it is, i fear, a bit late for anything much tocome of them...still...we will keep an eye on them...

cross over seasons

the winter wheat i planted ten days or so ago is developing second leaves on most of the plants...

the winter rye is trailing behind a bit in this but is showing signs of progress...

while the grain season is just starting some others are moving along to the end...the beans are still blooming and producing and will continue until a hard frost tells them to stop...

the hot banana peppers are mostly ripe and..well..hot...

there are a few kohlrabi left to bring in...

there are still cherry tomatoes on the vines,,,and there are blooms here as well...some seasons linger...

not the heirlooms however...those vines have pretty much died back and i brought the last of the fruit in this afternoon...

there are still some green leaves on the mashua... i will probably be digging that up by month's end though, neither the plant or the tubers are cold hardy...

to the best of my knowledge i have harvested all the viable zea mexicana seed the plants have produced...conversely, the northern tepehuan teosinte is just now beginning to irrupt in emergent ears and a proliferation of new silks...i need another thirty or forty frost-free days for this season to produce viable seed...and i may get it...i did last year...and on one level that would please me...on another, first average frost dates that continue to recede deeper into autumn are surely ( along with carolina horse nettle ) local markers of a changing climate...there can be too much of a good thing...a pharmakon...extending the growing season too long is bound to be harmful in the long-term.

more winterizing

with employment, such as it is, over for the day i traveled out to the garden on campus...where by the by, i met with an actual member of the community surrounding the garden who shook my hand and thanked me for the garden which she had clearly been utilizing ( the collards drew special praise ) i assured her sh was welcome and encouraged her to utilize what was left ( collards, tomatoes, peppers ) until the season collapses...at least in terms of harvestable produce...i am working on extending the season in my bed in an effort at year-round function...

i put a shovel in the bed of my truck before i left home this morning which made removing the rest of the maize roots much easier...

after i turned, hoed, and leveled the newly opened bed i broadcast more hare red winter wheat...

then i raked it in to about a quarter inch in depth...

and i doused the whole bed with a good soaking to get them going...

possibly not the best of photos, however there are sprouts up among the seed i planted sunday so hopefully things will move along smoothly...

there are deepening signs of autumn everywhere...i count twenty ripening asparagus "berries" still on the plants...

and down the row the beds are dying back...

there's still life out there yet though...plant...

and insect ( the picnicing squirrels seem to have vanished with the maize ) this will go on a while longer...then things will quiet down...still...we aren't nearly finished.

deconstruct...rebuild

rather a bizarre set of circumstances ( which will have to wait until a later date for a thorough investigation ) brought me to the garden at about quarter past six this morning and the first thing i noticed was the grass had been cut...

the asparagus is still going well...the squash vine invader has called it quits though...

more "berries" are ripening...a fair crop of asparagus seed this season if anyone is interested...

around the back side one of the volunteer spuds had died back...it yielded a fair haul of elmer's blue fingerling spuds...

i have harvested what maize the squirrels didn't get from my bed...the plants fulfilled their function and it is time to begin the process of winterizing the bed...

so i cut down the stalks...

and began the process of removing the maize roots ( note to self: bring shovel next trip ) which, given the depth and spread of the roots and the paucity of appropriate garden implements, was not the simplest task...

after i hoed the cleared area i broadcast winter wheat seed into the bed, raked it under to a shallow depth, and gave it a shot of water to let it know it could germinate...i will be making more frequent trips for a time to keep the seedlings well watered...

there are still tomatoes taking their sweet time ripening and there is still a potato plants entwined in the alfalfa...so i have not cleared the season out of the entire bed yet...it will be a process but the wheat needs to be in over the next week or so if it's going to have a chance of wintering over...i may be pushing things along a bit...and...

and look who is making a comeback...the next few months will tell if i have actually manage to control the jerusalem artichokes or if the shade and the roots of the maize were simply forcing the colony into a sort of hibernation...i knew it would be work...it always is.