The Perennial Agriculturalist

i know this isn't in the community garden...but it is nearing the end of the season and the end of the pgp and zea diploperennis and this blog have a long history...so some shots of the last remaining plant in what was once a much larger stand...decimated by a cold winter and doomed by a bureaucracy...don't know where there will be another stand,,,but i do have seed.

the grass in the community garden was brown and pretty crunchy underfoot this evening and the curled leaves on the maize ( second and third photo ) in the iuncg and the ones on the teosinte in the pgp ( fourth photo ) told me it was time to water...so i spent about an hour going over all the beds from from to back ( and i did not neglect to soak the arborvitae )...a much drier month has increased our need for supplemental water..a bit late but the idea of a flow meter to quantify use occurs...next season?

top two, zea diploperennis, bottom two zea mexicana.

grasses mostly flower in a more sedate fashion than plants trying to attract pollinators and the grasses in the pgp are no exception...the hopi blue maize in the top photo ( with a health stand of teosinte as a backdrop ) is a few months away from flowering...maize is usually wind pollinated, which is why the flower is at the top of the stalk, although self-pollination can occur ( i only had two plants last season and both produced ears of corn...they were planted next to each other an could have cross-pollinated or self-pollinated...with so many more plants this season there is more room for wind pollination...i think )...eastern gamagrass is a self-pollinator and the pollen from the flowers on the lower part of the terminal spike ( which are just starting to emerge in the second photo ) fertilizes the seeds on the top half... like maize, the wheat grass from kansas in the third photo is another usually wind pollinated plant, but can also self-pollinate...the asparagus isn't a grass and it has a bit showier flowers ( fourth photo ) because it is insect pollinated and needs to be attractive to them...even so they are pretty bland as flowers go...the bottom photo is of the forage variety of wheat grass which looks remarkably like the wheat grass from the land institute ( what a shocker ) and there is doubtlessly a chance of cross-pollination here as the wind is usually out of something of a westerly direction and the forage wheat grass is on the west side of the garden..so...minimalist, functional flowers for the self-pollinators, somewhat larger ( or more numerous ) flowers for the wind pollinated varieties, and something a bit more attractive for the insect pollinated plants...they're all in the pgp and even though it's only june reproductive processes are started..more as it develops.

hopi blue maize top...teosinte bottom.

Geeked…utterly geeked is the only way to describe it…the sub-topical grass zea diploperennis in the perennial garden project reaffirms its perennial nature by returning for a third season on campus…this past winter wasn’t as mild as the previous one and I had serious doubt about the grass pulling through even though I had mulched it even more heavily than in the autumn of 2011…four shoots up from two of the clumps and that means there will be more on the way…still two inert clumps out there and my hopes are for a bumper crop since there are four plants up from seed I planted last month…more as it comes up.

stopped off at campus after work to do some watering and see what was up...my only perennial teosinte so far this season is doing okay...i am hoping for more is some of the other spots i have it planted in bit it is fickle stuff...the eastern gamagrass is greening up in earnest now and will be dominating the east end of the garden again this season while the wheat grass form kansas is just booming along...there are more rouge jerusalem artichokes to cull when i have a bit more time and a trowel..since there are now sixteen up and running in the bed at my house i don't think there will be more transplanting...anyone interested in one or two of the vicious beasts? the pgp is coming alive and soon the hopi blue will be going in to add some height to the garden as well as an annual...over at the iu northwest community garden the cherry tree is in full blossom and is doing well given its travails last season...the neighbors came out while i was watering over there and we had a chat about what was up...the community part of the community garden.

gardening is an all weather sport and today was another wet, chilly one out there...the big news of the day is that there is finally an asparagus plant up...i was reasonably concerned about it because, no matter what the weather, the have always put in an appearance by mid april and these were running late...true it is only the beginning of a single spear but once one crops up the others aren't usually far behind...the fledgling zea diploperennis is doing well and is unmistakable as it gears up for the season...still no growth out of the beds from last year so i planted a few more seeds around just to play it safe...i can feature a lot of changes in the pgp as time goes on but i will always want to grow teosinte...hopi blue maize is too cool to pass up as well...the intermediate wheat grass is booming along...ignoring the chill as it has all winter and spreading out like a good perennial...three more rouge jerusalem artichokes have popped out of the garden and are destined for my backyard soon...doubtlessly there will be more of the invasive little critters...as i recall there were upwards of eighty after the first season...last year's poor production may cut that back a bit but more of these stubborn critters are lurking about...there is green in the garden...and now purple too...now if the red nordlands in the community garden show up... i will be a bit less impatient...still more to do.

it has been a long few days but i still felt constrained to go to the garden and have a look at things...and things look well...the top photo is of the two yaar old stand of zea dipoloperennis as it nears the end of its season with the eastern gamagrass in front...the second and third photos are of the two flowers on th northern tepehuan teosinte...this particular variant doesn't so much tiller ( like the zea diploperennis ) as branch and i was ( and am ) very pleases to see flowers forming on two more branches...hoping for seed ears again this season, although this year they will be developing a month later so the weather becomes the enemy...still..better than hoped...i harvested the last ear of hopi blue corn today...it was on a secondary stalk that had tillered off the main one...the second, smaller ear from the single stalk plant was a disappointment and so was this one, with mostly proto kernels that were incomplete and only a scattering of mature blue kernels...both plants produced large nine or ten inch long, eight row ears, on of which i am drying for seed,,,so long as event at home haven,t had a negative impact on its viability...we will find out in the spring...my elephant garlic arrived today so that will be going in soon and i am still expecting more fall plants by the end of the month...a jerusalem artichoke harvest and another round of storage follies are on the horizon...lots of sources of disruption this autumn...they will be overcome and the garden(s) will carry on.

i was on campus sunday and things were just fine...not so on tuesday...the teosinte on the south side of the garden sustained some significant damage...something ( the wind? critters? ) or someone ( vandals? the overtly clumsy? my asparagus has been mowed more than once over the years ) trampled down the zea diploperennis ( second photo ) and snapped off a stalk of the northern tepehuan ( third photo )...unfortunately it was the central stalk the was producing a flower ( fourth photo )...so no seeds this season...i am profoundly peeved ( also behaving myself vocabulary-wise ) about this...i loathe losing a plant and when it is among my favorites and a difficult one to establish i am doubly peeved...so i went back to my truck and retrieved some jute twine and some stakes with which i supported the wounded ( fourth photo ) in an effort to save what is left of their season...native seed search will see me ordering more teosinte seed this autumn to try again in 2013...i am bummed...i am also deeply obdurate...more maize and more teosinte next year...the top photo is of a diminished pgp a bit after five this evening...the bottom photo is of a somewhat less robust stand of teosinte...an exceptionally minor tragedy in the larger scope of things...a gardener's lament over events in microcosm...more on the fall harvest and planting as plants and root arrive

a few photos of the back...the top is the "primitive cultivar" potato ojosa negra and right below is a red nordland...both recognizably potatoes...but different enough to be noticeable..the third is a healthy stand of jerusalem artichokes...easily larger than those on campus...last census was about fifty plants and counting...the last two are the potted zea diploperennis that spent the winter in my basement...i put them outside about three weeks ago nd just like the improbable teosinte on campus they began putting out numerous shoots...so zea diploperennis dies back and has a dormant period...all i idi was water the roots once a week to keep them moist and they came back this spring...i see a re-potting in a larger home at the end of the season and an effort to kepp them alive and running as long as possible.

top photo is of wheat seed heads...the next two are vines from a couple of very robust plants that are filling in the trellis early this year and are beginning to leaf...the fourth is the stand of improbable teosinte amd the bottom photo is a doomed yam about to be engulfed from two sides by jerusalem artichokes.