blooms

memorial day weekend finds both annual and perennial plants blooming in the pgp...more hairy vetch has bloomed, joining the dixie clover that has been in flower for better than a week...the winter rye in the third photo is flowering as well so we will have seed for green manures and cover crops this coming autumn from a local source..which is at least part of what being sustainable is about...even the asparagus is flowering which means more "berries" in a few months to collect and naturalize wherever it seems there is a likely spot...things are moving along and it is only the end of may....next month will have its share of growth ans surprises too.

greeen manure on a bed of rye

the green manure seed bed in the pgp is doing fine...like the stand in my yard, both the dixie clover and the hairy vetch are in bloom which speaks of seed to come...and the hairy vetch is hitching a ride on the rye here as well..tendrils everywhere...one wonders if they will get to the chinese yams...so far so good this season and i will be collecting all the seed and moving all the plants possible over the next six months...it started out as a year for physically moving gardens and it will finish that way as well...resilience is something we're trying to learn here...my thoughts are that we will need all we can muster soon enough.

last potato planting

off to the pgp this morning to finish up the potato patch that has replaced the forage variety of intermediate wheat grass...turned in yet another forty pounds of composted manure ( i hope the university is aware of the fertile and organic nature of the plot they are reclaiming...bet hey don't...bet it becomes lawn again...bet it gets covered in 2-20-10 fertilizer again in 2015 )...more than two tons since 2009...anyway...i put in three yukon golds, one all red and seven early blue that could not find a home in the community garden...the mashua in the bottom photo seems as happy as the ones in the community garden...hoping for many tubers there...many spuds too.

all clear

strong thunderstorms with heavy rain, wind, and hail that moved through late last night left the pgp unscathed...the mashua in the top photo is just fine as are the nascent asparagus and red pontiac potato in the second...while the dixie clover is in full bloom...i talked to tim form the ground crew yesterday and worked out a tenetive timetable for the shutdown this coming autumn...kindly he basically told me to take all the time i thought i needed but the end can commence as soon as the intermediate wheat grass i want to move gose sufficiently dormant and the seeds from the eastern gamagrass mature enough to shatter an gather to try to naturalize into a second generation stand somewhere on the periphery of the community garden...the pgp in the bototm photo gets greener by the day.

grasses in the pgp

both the annual ( top photo ) and perennial ( second photo ) strains of the maize ancestor teosinte have reached a couple of inches in height and now that the weather is warming they should start to grow like...well...corn...should be able to visibly see it grow if you have the right kind of eyes...the eastern gamagrass in the third photo is a hardy native grass that serve as a forage plant...mostly for deer around here...they seem to love the seeds which is ood since they resemble nothing so much as little chunks of wood when they mature...no accounting for taste i suppose...the winter rye that i panted as a cover crop with the fall green manures ( hairy vetch, dixie clover , and yellow peas ) has seed heads developing...i believe i will let them mature and save more seed...thee will be bits and pieces of this garden spread around after the autumn shutdown...it will remain in spirit and in fact.

yams and a surprise

the chinese yams ( top photo ) are producing robust vines and are making thorough use of the trellis already...it may require expansion before season's end...the asparagus on the west side of the garden ( second photo ) is over three feet tall and will be "ferning" soon...i harvested some spears today ( the season isn't over...i just let the big ones go too long )and there should be more into next month and there will probably be an autumn harvest as well since this is pretty much these plant's last season...i did find a surprise lurking about the garden in several places however and it involves intermediate wheat grass and asparagus..apparently removing the stand of wheat grass and replacing it with a potato patch has allowed enough sunlight to filter to the garden floor for some naturalized asparagus seed to germinate and take root...perhaps this is a chance to dig some year old crowns out of the pgp and move a piece of it along in the autumn...where is the salient question...i am not sanguine about the drainage in the community garden and asparagus hates wet feet...there are raised beds there however and that may save them...the community garden needs some perennials...they are a hallmark of sustainability and can be intercropped closely after the first few seasons of root development...we will see come 2015.

surprise appendix

along the perimeter of the surprises more is going on...the dixie clover is in full bloom...seed saving for other gardens is next...it will be going in along with new zealand white clover wherever there's a need for green manure...the winter rye ( second photo ) intercropped with the clover is erupting in seed heads ( just like the ones in my back yard ) and that will provide seed for cover crops in beds as they winter over and hold nitrogen for plant sin the spring...there is perennial teosinte popping up in the four year old stand and this gardener is pleased by that even if the university isn't ( third photo )...bottom photo is th epgp about 7:30 this morning...coming along.

more movement

things are coming along outside hawthorn hall in mid-may...the potato patch now has a dozen residents, including leona, red pontiac, and the scottish-born craigs' snowwhite...there will be a few more varieties added later this month...the intermediate wheat grass from th eland institute in kansas is greening up very nicely and will be producing seed heads in the next couple of months...the starlings ravaged them last year and i may be bagging the heads in an effort to harvest more seed...i am hoping to salvage a couple of them at least when dormancy sets in in autumn...but this will be their third season ( the first was in kansas ) and i have some question about how much disruption a three year old perennial root system can absorb and how much of it is enough to maintain the plant? i am no wheat grass expert so i will be improvising and doing all the research i can...perhaps t eland institute can advise...i see an email in the works...there are eleven shoots up in the old stand of perennial teosinte and it is unfortunate but i don't think these will do well in transplanting ( not that that will keep me from trying )..the bottom photo is of a greening pgp on may 15th...we aren't done yet.

greening, blooms, and vines

the eastern gamagrass is greening up and will be full soon enough...a hardy native grass it is slow to germinate and difficult to eradicate once established...if the past two seasons are anything to judge by there will be a multiplicity of flowers and seed heads to collect seed for another stand at a different location...the dixie clover from the green manures wintered over unprotected and, in addition to fixing nitrogen in the soil, they are blooming which means they too will go to seed...which i will save as a source of green manures for the community garden across campus when the beds there begin to be harvested...the chinese yams are up and the vines have already formed a rope around the trellis post...yet another perennial ( it is the perennial garden project )they ar non-native but have done well, overwintering when mulched and producing aerial bulbs by the hundreds...they also highlighted the difference in plant production...when the reproductive system is the food...like the tubers from potatoes or jerusalem artichokes, the harvest for human use is comparatively large...when it is simply stored starch in the root system like the chines yams the usable portion per plant is small making them inappropriate food sources...or ones that require large areas and much labor...the garden is an exploration of economic botany in microcosm..one that will carry one beyond this season.

teosinte

i have serious doubts about saving the perennial teosinte in the first three photos ...it is beginning to fill in and has survived four northwest indiana winters ( albeit heavily mulched )...like all perennials it has a fairly extensive root system and will be virtually impossible to transplant without doing major damage...fortunately i have seeds from the same accession and can probably recreate a fair stand elsewhere...most likely at home where it can be more readily defended...the annual teosinte in the bottom photo has seeds readily available commercially and is fairly easy to grow if the sowing is properly timed...maize ancestors will continue to be part of the plant population on and off campus.

entering the fifth season

in terms of care i have not been neglecting the first garden on campus i have been involved in...but i have not been writing much about it even though it is flourishing...i have word that the university would like to reclaim the one hundred and sixty square feet i have gardened since the autumn of 2009...that is their right and privilege...so be it...i would hope they will allow the season to run its course before a shutdown since it has stared and there are many plants up and running including the asparagus in the third photo and the red pontiac potato in the fourth...some of the plants will be removable when they go into dormancy in the fall..others ( like the asparagus ) are doomed to be sodded over and mowed down...unfortunate but i ( or kathy forgey for that matter...the fire under the boiler for this garden ) never thought it would be a permanent installation..so its fifth season will be the last...i will save what i can through transplants and seed...bits of kathy's desire for research on campus will find their way around...these things happen.