reproduction in the pgp I

some plants indulge in cyclical reproduction...others not so much...that's a shattered seed pod form a hairy vetch plant ( top photo ) that has finished its cycle...if the garden was going to continue those seeds would germinate and produce overwintering plants that would flower next season...and set nitrogen in the soil...the second photo is of a hairy ( or winter ) vetch plant a few inches away that is flowering away...preparing to form new pods ( with the help of a bumble bee pollinator ) for as long as the weather permits...meanwhile a couple of feet away the chinese yams are still producing blooms ( third photo ) but that will be ending shortly and the plants will be spending energy to finish the maturation process that has already started on some of the vines ( bottom photo )the process has limits amn is not an open-ended process controlled only by the length of the season...eventually the yams will shif t gears and the bloom production will cease.

reproduction in the pgp II

the gamagrass is decidedly cyclical and every bit as relentless as the chinese yams ( or jerusalem artichokes for that matter )...the clumps have spawned a multitude of seed heads in various stages of the reproductive cycle...emergent...or in full flower like the seed head in the second photo...the one in the third photo is the first one i have found this season that has begun to shatter...the seeds at the bottom of the head are not mature yet but some have clearly broken off and the one i pulled off ( fourth photo ) is ready to go into the ground...i know because it looks like a small chunk of wood...that is mature eastern gamagrass seed...no mistaking it.

teosinte and friends

what's left of the mighty stand of perennial teosinte is doing well and showing through its morphology that it is indeed an ancestor of maize...it couldn't look cornier if it tried...it has company in the form of the native edible purslane and there's a bit of doomed asparagus that has popped up close by as well...on the whole the last season is rolling along...still lots to do and see before autumn...where to move these plants? home is my thought.

a dearth of yellow

the pgp doesn't seem to be having quite the excess water difficulties that the community garden is and i wonder why...my first thought is better drainage...even though i have unearthed construction ( or destruction ) debris every season the pgp sits over what us basically an underlayer of sand ( much like my yard ) and the drainage is good...even on the low end of the garden where the water tolerant gamagrass is...and my second thought is that the plants are mostly perennials...that brown in the long shot on top is ripe winter rye...the early blue potato that's blooming in the second photo is as green as could be...and it's a perennial even if it's a plant/replant one...the lamb's quarter in the third photo is an annual and it is ( so far ) the only plant i've found with any yellowing...the teosinte in the bottom photo isn't looking unhappy at all either...and it's a perennial strain...drainage? perennials? a combination? neither? don't know for sure but i will be keeping an eye on things over there and will certainly post if the perennials start to go south.

gamagrass

no yellow on the eastern gamagrass either...just green and further expansion of the seed head population...all sorts of stages of development going on from newly emerged to flowering and on to maturing...hundreds of them all bent on making a bigger stand of grass...it won't happen here unfortunately and i haven't decided yet where to relocate the plants' offspring...my backyard is crowded but it is also somewhere a bit safer from bureaucratic machinations and communal changes of heart...room may be cleared..or i may (further) spite the neighbors...clearly there will be plenty of seed...which is fine because this grass is as difficult to start as it is to stop...my experience has been about a ten percent germination rate on direct sown seed...there are convoluted and painful processes to stratify the seed indoors for spring planting...i am disinclined to invest in fungicide among other difficulties...come november batches of seed are going into the ground....wherever the final decision put them.

frenzy

if this wasn't pretty much a repeat of last year's seed irruption i'd say the grass has sensed the end is coming...but since this is a carbon copy i'll have to conclude that the plants are happy in their location and that they are slaving away to the relentless desire of their dna to reproduce itself as much as it possibly can...the good news is that it will provide abundant seed to try to establishing new stands with across the county ( why not think ambitiously...it's native after all )...there are lots of deer out there and they like the seeds...no seed is mature yet but the seed heads are exhibiting all different stages of flowering and the number of seed heads continues to increase...some plants take to lots of rain better than others.

july fourth end page

the perennial garden project about eight a.m. on its last fourth of july and the obligatory photo of zea diploperennis because i am still geeked by teosinte and it's my blog.