Roses and Rye.

Lovely, bright morning after a hard rain last night and a hard frost earlier this week.    In spite of all that, there are still a few rose petals on the large bush in front of the house.   Keep in mind, this is Downeast Maine, and we aren't on the coast where things are milder.   I am so impressed with this bush.

There was good news this morning.   The winter rye that went into some of the vegetable beds a few days ago, late,  just sprouted.   It is very hard to see when it first comes up:  you really have to look because it is dark purple against the dark brown ground.   See that vertical stuff?   In a couple of days it will green up.   Plan B for if the rye didn't come up or if it doesn't get thick enough before it stops growing this year, is to seriously start cutting and collecting grass, and do a huge amount of mulching.   I'd rather not do that.    So...the sprouting is good.

Normally, the seed should have gone in well before this, but I took a whole lot of time dealing with squash vines with downy mildew -- bagging and removing them.    Downy mildew is not very serious - lots of organic gardens see it late in the season.   We got all the pumpkins and squash we needed before it wilted the vines.   But, it cuts production so I need to do what I can to discourage it.

I've got unintentional test cases running in some of the beds.   This is some "older" winter rye in another bed.  This area was not tilled at the end of the season.   I just pulled out the plants, raked a little, tossed in some rye, and rolled it.   I need it to grow more and fill in the gaps.

Just for comparison purposes -- this is a bed that had rye about a foot long until last weekend.   The soil was nicely covered.    But....something possessed me to mow it.    So...there is now some mulch down from the leavings and...I'm waiting for the rye to come back a bit.

 It just isn't fun if you don't play.