Friday, April 8, 2011

beets, wheat, zea diploperennis, and a rouge sunchoke








spent some time working on campus this morning which was entirely enjoyable, if a bit muddy...accomplished a few things i wanted to get done on what promises to be a busy weekend and saw a few familiar faces as i was working which helped things along as well...the top photo is a fist full of beet seeds..i planted nineteen of them in a bed i prepared with composted manure ( bottom photo)...we will see how many germinate as the temperature range for the next few days and the rainfall we've had and are expected to get are making the conditions just about right...the second photo is spring wheat which i broadcast into the bed in the second to last photo ( more manure)...the middle photo is for all of you who think i am an unrelenting pessimist who cannot broach a positive thought ( you know who you are)...it is eight Zea diploperennis seeds which i planted directly into the ground...period...no soaking in hydrogen peroxide to break dormancy...no tricks of the trade...just a perennial tropical parked right in the northwest indiana ground to await its fate...we'll see about that too...especially since i can discern no movement in the northern tepehuan teosinte yet...there is movement however...nine turnip plants are up...thirteen spinach plants are cooking along....and one of the chinese yams is up...this pleases me no end since i have a different plan for a vine trellis this year and now i get to use it...as i was aerating the soil around the garden i turned up a volunteer jerusalem artichoke...i knew this would happen, and i know i said i would cull the herd as it happened...but i couldn't do it...i just moved it to an empty spot...my resolve to have only six jerusalem artichokes destroyed by a rooting tuber...so be it...if they turn up in other beds and i run out of room i will have to harden my resolve...past that it was an ordianry day...i have more photos i will be posting in an appendix...just because i want to.

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