interfering in the lives of plants ( and the plants are resisting )

what passes for work these days ended early so i drove over to campus on the way home...

in the asparagus bed i found thirty-six spears in all...

in all shapes, sizes, and stages of development...

including some well on the way to "ferning"...the aspragus seems to be happy this spring...

so i took a handful home...

over in my "offical" bed i found two garlic plants up and running where there had been none before...seemingly we will need to apply patience...

the alfalfa looks very verdant...

and a critically important correspondent to this blog will remain pleased that the alflafa is still thumbing its green nose at limits...

and while we are talking disregard for limits, the alfalfa has seeded itself outside the bed in the garden lawn...there is a danger of mowing in this reckless behavior...

while i was running a weeding hoe through the bed i disgoreged a volunteer spud that was obviously working towards a season...

so i pulled back the fabric on the back side of the aspragus bed and scooped out a hole in the soil ( competent photographer that i am i managed to include the camera strap and my shoe in the only photo of the hole i took )...

and gave the spud a less hazardous home for the season...a day off tomorrow may see me in the other garden...or maybe not...i need to scout out a place for a strawberry bed in the back ( and then build it )...there may be a post in that...

they arrived bearing fruit and blooms...and i am thinking there will be stolons soon enough.

two communities

yet another day off from what passes as work these days saw me motor out to the campus garden to see what was what...and what was, was...

asparagus...some of which continues to "fern"...

most of the thirty-five spears i counted were not close to that far along...

except these at the west end of the bed...they are the youngest of the asparagus plants and still have another year before they reach five and are harvestable..so we will be letting them "fern" and cycle though another season on their own...i did bring three spears home and will continue to make more frequent asparagus runs until june anyway...

i did not expect to see any garlic in my official bed...and did not...i did water the bed again as the temepratures are due to rise and we wil look in on the garlic next asparaus run...

what i did find in the bed was alfalfa and alfalfa of a vibrant shade of spring green...

and, in what is sure to please an important correspondent to this blog, one plant has already begun to play fast and loose with limits...finished on campus i wandered over to the portage community garden...

where, again, my expectations were low...

i planted this bed two days earlier than the bed on campus and, when i had a closer look, i did find two of the cloves had broken surface with shoots, so the season there is underway...one imagines we will find garlic up on campus next trip out.

somewhat unexpected

given the reasonably unnatural environment in the basement...

i did not actually expect to see the tesointe i test germinated and planted downstairs under the lights to be trying both to flower...

and produce silks...still...here is where we find ourselves...it has been 128 day since i planted it and that is just about right for seed production ( perhaps a bit of a longer season due to the environment )...my expectations are low ( as should yours be ) however it is an index of the resilience of the plants and the relentless drive of dna to reproduce itself...this could be taken as a good sign for the viability of the seed i will be using for the outdoor season...we will see.

i did not expect to see garlic...

...and i did not...at the campus garden today..and, i suspect, at the "other garden" when i visit ...probably tomorrow...

i did find happy alflafa...

and, since the garden hose has been brought out...i gave the bed a thorough watering in an effort to produce happy garlic as well...

the "unseasonably warm" weather is due to take a trun for the spring-like...however never trust the weather...it may rain...it may not...either way the garlic is watered...

over in the asparagus bed there were thirty-three spears up all told...

including a few that had grown so quickly they have begun to "fern"...

to forestall further ferning" i made a small harvest...then headed home where things to a somewhat more interesting turn ( in my estimation anyway )...

there is happy alfalfa in the back yard as well...

there are now eight rows of einkorn wheat...although some of last year's seed has misfired...

the ramp poulation is expanding...and then i stumbled on ( actually i didn't stumble, i am consistent in taking a tramp around the back yard to see what is what on a daily basis...i like to keep track of what's going on... ) some surprises in terms of timing of appearance...as i mentioned the weather has been remakably warm for mid-april around here...still i was surprised to find...

not one but actually two chinese yam vines up and running...may is the usual time for them to pop up...

the new york import strawberries are blooming fully nine days earlier than last year...

and that is a jerusalem artichoke...in the thirteen years i have been growing these they have not once appeared before the tail end of the first week of may...so we are three weeks ahead of schedule here...these are native plants, not imports...they evolved here and are a fair index of the fact that the climate around here is changing...a few years ago the usda quietly modified their "hardiness zone" for this area and the sunchokes seem to be seconding the change...certainly this is the earliest i have ever seen them...if there's an el nino summer we'll see how they all do...could be a tough season.