Sunday, May 18, 2014

Asparagus!

Of course, I could go foraging and find some wild asparagus like Betsy and I did last year, but we wanted something closer to home, so why not use those raised beds?

Here was the garden last year, around September:


Planting weather is just starting, and a couple months ago I ordered some Jersey Knight asparagus roots. I ordered two year old crowns, because asparagii must grow for several years before they are ready to harvest enough to amount to something.  (I have since learned that there is no advantage to ordering two year asparagus crowns, that one year one will do just fine.) Oh, well.

So on an overcast day in the 70's (woo hoo! it was hot out there!), I planted my asparagus crowns.

First I dug a trench and piled the dirt in our rickety wheelbarrow.


The wheelbarrow only tipped over once. 

Here is one of the asparagus crowns. They look very unassuming, don't they?


For each asparagus crown, I made a little mound of compost so it would have a nice spreading out place.


After that, I shoveled the soil back into the garden bed and added a top dressing of more compost. When some shoots appear, I think I will add some old dried cow manure to the bed. We have plenty of that around here.

Now the waiting begins. So I will water and fertilize and someday, in the not so distant future....


In the meantime, here is a link to a recipe for Cherry Tomato and Asparagus Salad which is amazingly good, and just the way to start the summer picnic season. We've had it twice now and even Mr. Picky likes it, minus the avocado.

3 comments:

  1. Yum! I'm envious. Do you grow garlic? I love this recipe in the spring, with asparagus, green garlic and edanam.i

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  2. Wow! I've never seen the planting process before for asparagus... I really need to give this a try. And the recipe sounds yummy! My "Mr. Picky" likes avocados, but usually won't eat salads because most have vinegar in the dressing. This might just be acceptable to him, but if not, I will enjoy it! Thanks...

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  3. Hope your plants do well. It must be hard to wait that long to harvest--nothing beats fresh asparagus in the spring:)

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