spring might be back...

...or, perhaps, we will launch straight into summer...given the nature of the climate over the past few years it is difficult to know...i see activity out in the industrial fields which would normally be considered somewhat premature for the area...and the yard is moving along too..after an admittedly slow start...

both second year asparagus plants have produced one spear and that may be all we see unless there is an autumn addition...the root system may not yet be able to support multiple spears...we will be seeing...

the third year plant has put up two more to go along with the first which has reached a foot or so in height...the plant produced eight spears in two clusters last season so i am hoping for more...the bigger the root system gets over the next two seasons the better...

i count sixty-one ramps in varying stages of development up...somewhere around two thirds of the ninety odd i replanted last september...waiting for more...

the imported wild strawberries are sunning themselves and preparing to bloom, berry, and make another run at taking the bed over from the jerusalem artichokes...i seeded in some sweet clover there and in a few other places...just to mix it up a bit and work with the bees...

the winter rye...

and the winter wheat are both looking lush and working at filling in the beds...

the red seedless grapes at the south end of the house are budding...perhaps i will be seeing grapes there this season...

the grapes have neighbors in the form of two containerized bison spuds who see content to bask the april day away...

and finally ( for the nonce ) the gnarled, grandfatherly concord grape...

is budding on the new vines it produced close to the roots last season...

and on the vines it has spread through the fir and catalpa trees...a venerable and prolific plant...there will be grapes.

about forgot the onions...which have "walked" and are more abundant...

with a thaw and a reasonable amount of rain since then the aerial bulbs are settling deeper into the soil...

and becoming fully fledged plant in their own right.

a ramp ( and friend ) in three weeks

the current population is fifty-eight...more than half are up...expecting more by month's end.

spuds

there are twenty-seven asparagus spears up in the campus garden, however none are quite ready to harvest...

aside form that the garden is looking rather austere..this will be changing a bit later this month as, among other things, tree planting on campus is on the menu...

there is some growth going on in my bed...the smaller of the two alfalfa plants i transplanted eleven days ago had adapted well while the larger plant seems to have shocked a bit..there seems to be less green than there was...still there is green and we will look for new growth next time out...

kimberly always told me to plant potatoes on good friday..and here we are so i turned the bed again and dug two trenches a shovel deep and a shovel wide and spread compost along the bottom of the trenches...

in the trench along the west side i planted morene...

tacna...

michigan purple...

basadre...

and a german butterball at the very north end...

in the trench on the east side i planted four elmer's blue, another german butterball, and a bison...

i back filled the trenches to cover the spuds to a depth of about three inches and now we wait...i left a space on the north end for some maize and the center of the bed will probably be populated by peppers and tomatoes...if the winter's indoor seasons pays off well enough the may be a couple of mashua tubers going in as well...and perhaps some sweet clover around the edges for the bees...after the spuds are established and the trenches filled back in.

warming continues

considering that there was snow on the ground two days ago the change in the weather is significant...and various populations are beginning to think winter might be over...

the onions have been active for a while actually, however the burst of warmth has them moving well past the slow start...something seems to have been walking on, but not consuming, a few of them...errant raccoon perhaps...or a hungry ( but not that hungry ) rabbit...

the third year asparagus has been up for over a week now and is booming along..today though i found that some of the plants i grew from seed last season have successfully overwintered and are having a look around...

these are extreme close-ups..these spears are no more than an eighth of an in inch in diameter, if that...it will be spring 2022 before these plants are ready to be harvested...gardening teaches patience...

a second of the three relentless perennials in the south bed 9 the strawberries, like the onions , have been active a while and they were not intimidated by the jerusalem artichokes last season..they avoided the shade but colonized the bed anywhere there was sun...they are not leaving any time soon ) is up...the chinese yam is greening and about to leaf...

and today i count thirty-eight ramps up in varying stages of development...that is a bit over a third of what i would expect...or, at least, hope for given the count i took in last autumn's bed cleaning and replant...looking for seeds...looking to cook with wild leeks...looking for a expanding season as the month melds into may.