mid december on the south end of the inland sea

gloomy isn't unusual in northwest indiana in the middle of decemmber...neither, as i recollect, is a lack of snow...it has been raining instead...the snow would seem to have shifted south which in and of itself is unnatural but there is no climate change...right?...we verge on a rant here and those belong on a different blog...so..for now we will say that the weather here falls within "normal" parameters but the climate is getting angry and that could change any time...

the road home from an early quitting time took me east into the more rural section of the nexus and it seems that a lot more of the corn has come in during the last six days...stubble everywhere...and a few acres here an there that had been tilled under...

and it was in those turned fields that i could see standing water or the indications of the erosive effect it has where it once stood..it has been above freezing fro almost a week and what ground that was frozen has thawed...if the precipitation continues as rain instead of there being a hard freeze and snow, not only is my winter wheat crop going to suffer, there will be some late year erosion that usually waits until spring...tons of topsoil are lost here every year...a changing weather pattern isn't going to help that...i will have some time again to keep an eye on the weather 9 beyond planning a commute to work ) and on the conditions i see around me...there are convincing lines of evidence supporting climate change to be had locally...easily as valid and as empirical as those of any climate scientist...you can learn a lot in microcosm.

running late

there was a distinct chill about when i set out for the campus garden this morning...i am late with a chore there and i plead a hectic work schedule that has nor eliminated free time but has left it at a premium and at exactly the wrong time of the asparagus season...

clearly the asparagus is done feeding the roots for the year and the growth that has died back has to be cleared to make way fro the spring irruption...

before i cut the asparagus back i harvested quite a few "berries' from the plants...already cold shocked they are ready to scatter ...

i cut back the plants...however i did leave a few of the berries in the bed to fall where nature puts them and, hopefully, generate a few more plants...asparagus is a perennial but, like all the living on the planet, it does have a finite life span...twenty tears is a good life in asparagus terms so we need renewal...

i spread a layer of compost ( which was steaming in the cold ) as a layer of insulation for the asparagus crowns...the ground is too frozen to admit landscaping staples so straw will have to wait..or may not happen at all...

so i believe we can close the 2018 garden season now...except for on last event...

when i got home i took four of the "berries" i had harvested and sowed them into a bed in my yard that i have already established asparagus in to, hopefully ( gardening is a hopeful, if not optimistic, undertaking ) establish more growth here as well...if the weather warms at a time i have time there will be a straw dispersal and another post.

the kids and a field

down in the basement puddle's kids are "leggy" but robust and seem to be getting along well with their onion friends...they are firmly rooted which bodes well fro an extended season come spring and a move outdoors...

the mashua down there is all coming along well and each plant is evincing new growth...there is hope for winter tubers for spring planting..and the yacon ensconced with the largest of the mashua is looking fairly lush considering it has never seen actual sunlight...we may have tubers..or rhizomes...from that plant for spring as well...

i have been sporting this year's haul of teocintli seed by size and color...there seems to be a correlation between the two with the larger seeds being darker which, i think, can be attributed to the larger seeds having a denser endosperm which will, i hope, mena better viability..i have 182 out of what must amount to around 1000 seeds that look most promising...i will be freezing some and keeping some out for a germination tests later next year...if they sprout they will be in the yard come april...

finally, i was out running around this morning and drove past the former corn field behind the field behind the big box stores and was struck by a couple of things...there has been some precipitation here of late and it has collected in a low spot in the field and frozen...if the changing climate and weather patterns ( tell me they are not an i will mark you down as insensate to your environment ) brings an increase in liquid ( as opposed to frozen ) precipitation ( which likelihood my rain gauge is supporting ) this may be another spot to keep an eye on erosion from...then again...with a cell phone tower planted firmly by the farmer's outbuildings and suburbia encroaching from the other side the field may be "improved and developed" before any substantiating data can be compiled...the industrial food feed stock this field provides may soon have to be imported from brazil or argentina...hot pockets extruded from south american cereals.

in the field

a different job has me n a different commute and it is one that takes me through the rural/suburban nexus and past any number of fields of industrial agriculture...this time of year most of them look like these...stubble...or, inexplicably, newly turned...but not all...

more than one i met along the way home...

had significant acreage of dense yellow #2 in the field...there were no beans ( and we will be getting back to soybeans in a minute )...the daily price of corn is up $4.60 a metric ton over the close of october...and i can probably safely assume we are waiting for the price to rise a bit more before bringing the rest of the crop in..beyond the odd starving deer ( nothing with any other sort of food source would eat this stuff ) munching an ear not much harm can come to it...soybean prices have been somewhat volatile of late..they are up some at $338.68...about twelve bucks a ton more than last time i had a close look..but still $55 down on october's close...commodities seem to be taking a beating...good thing the president has set aside $12 billion to ease the cost of a trade war he started.

snow...but not enough

it has been reasonably cold for late november in these parts and there has been snow...not that much really..about an inch and a half of accumulation this past week and with the warming going on it is melting off..it is getting to be late autumn and things are changing and i am wondering just what the coming season will be like and i am hoping this is not a harbinger of future conditions...

it has all but melted off the rye and wheat beds...

leaving just an icy crust around the edges with plants poking through...winter wheat needs three to six inches of snow to insulate it from temperature fluctuations and to provided spring moisture...a snow drought can kill it...which i experienced first-hand wither before last which led tot his year's attempt ( disappointing ) at spring wheat...i am concerned about another snowless winter...

there are other things besides concerns over things i have no way of controlling ( an issue for agriculturalist since the neolithic revolution...gardening teaches some acceptance of loss...it also instills a quest for ways to lessen or prevent it..that's why it's called agri culture )..most of the teocintli ears have turned down and begun to shatter...which is fin with me...one can hope for spontaneous teocintli in the spring...i will be germinating and planting but the yard is always full of surprises..i have collected several hundred seeds and will be hoping to produce another generation in 2019 ( these plants have all been grown from seed i collected in autumn 2017 )...

the cold seems to have had little impact on the walking onions...

and the new york wild strawberries are living up to their "tough little plants" reputation...and while we are talking tough little plants...

puddles' kids are just fine..they are growing leggy, collapsing, and putting up new vertical growth just like mom did...there will be a mat of green on the surface of the soil before long...we will see them through the winter and into the spring sunshine...

i have marginally more control over environment in the basement...and while i can neither recreate natural sunlight or daylength i do have the ability to provide a consistent one with enough necessary elements to keep the basement a bit green...the four mashua plants are all exhibiting new growth and yacon is looking green and healthy...a counter point to the outdoor uncertainty.

backyard mulch

it's a holiday and it's also the first day off i have had in a while...the ramps and the potted maple tree ( affectionately dubbed "little guy" ) both needed to be mulched for winter...

so i gathered up leaves from the maples out front and dropped a six inch deep layer on top of the ramps to insulate them and to help keep them thinking they are in the woods...

and after i repositioned little guy to the south side of the ramp bed i gave him a thorough mulching...all the way up to the fork in his trunk and radiating our=t about three feet...a blanket of dead air space to help him through the winter...

difficult as they may be to see, my first yr=ear asparagus plants have died back...so i marked them...

and gave them a mulching as well...

the second year plant has a much deeper root system and probably won't suffer much from the cold...however since i was there with the leaves anyway i filled the cage to about the standard six inches...so that's done...now i need to get out to campus one of these late autumn days.