Saturday, September 3, 2016

ramp retrieval

so this morning i added another 400 pounds of compost and that about got the bed where i wanted it and i moved the project along...i went out to the ramp bed i was so concerned about this past early summer with the plants being exposed to sun almost the whole day ( you will remember the tarp sunshade i rigged up and abandoned )...it was overgrown with biomass so i pulled it..except for three pepper plants that are there...and which between them have produced exactly one pepper...i needn't have worried because as soon as i stuck the spading fork in i began to turn up dormant ramps, including one that had actually bunched and which i separated to plant...so counting that one as two i retrieved 28 ramps from that bed, including one that has gone to seed and has a mature seed in its seed head...that one will go along with the other 7 that have gone to seed in pots along side the house...but we aren't done yet...serendipity plays a role in all this and the ramps i ordered from triplebrook farms arrived in yesterday's mail...another 26 ramps....so if it weren't for the one plant that has gone to seed in the corner of the bed no one would know there are 54 ramps planted there...add in what i may be able to germinate from all that seed and the probability of volunteers in the old bed and next spring could be ramp city around here...i will be mulching this bed with leaves as they fall this autumn...probably from the locust trees...ramps like shade and they like soil that contains a high content of leaf humus...i will be trying to give them what they want.

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