2010 Garden Peek-tures

[dave1949]

Dave, wild asparagus grows here in fencelines where the soil is undisturbed for years. I remember as a kid going out along the railroad track I walked to school every day and looking for wild asparagus shoots in the spring. I think at one time I found about a dozen and my mother cooked them. From that time forward, I was hooked on asparagus.:dance1: Where I have it in my garden, it only gets about 4 to 5 hours of direct sunlight during the day. I think it will do fine as it seems to be thriving and extremely healthy.

Stay cool! I noticed today that the eastern seaboard and northeast was especially hot, more than here. It's just very humid here, but only in the low to mid 90s today.

Trying to stay cool here. I was out on the tractor about 5 hours yesterday and called it quits around 2pm. Deer flies and sticky heat - Yuck. When/if we get a hot spell, it is usually short. Not many houses here have AC, so we aren't really set up for hot weather.

There is another way to enjoy asparagus. The 'white' variety that is grown by hilling over the plants such that the stem never sees the light of day until it is harvested. Very mild and delicate flavor, but more work obviously. After harvest, of course the stems are allowed to get to sunshine to nourish the root for next season. I like it green just fine myself and fresh cut from the garden is the best.

This 'white' asparagus has a minor cult following in Germany and France. Restaurants run specials on asparagus with hollandaise sauce for a few weeks each year.
Dave

 

[jinman]

There is another way to enjoy asparagus. The 'white' variety that is grown by hilling over the plants such that the stem never sees the light of day until it is harvested. Very mild and delicate flavor, but more work obviously. After harvest, of course the stems are allowed to get to sunshine to nourish the root for next season. I like it green just fine myself and fresh cut from the garden is the best.

This 'white' asparagus has a minor cult following in Germany and France. Restaurants run specials on asparagus with hollandaise sauce for a few weeks each year.
Dave

I wonder if loose compost or mulch would work instead of hilling over. Of course, I love green asparagus so much I can't see why I'd go to the trouble.

 

[randy41]

You should be able to harvest some asparagus next spring. The recommended procedure is to harvest for 2 weeks the first year and 6 weeks the following years. They need a lot of phosphorus.

 

[jinman]

You should be able to harvest some asparagus next spring. The recommended procedure is to harvest for 2 weeks the first year and 6 weeks the following years. They need a lot of phosphorus.

Do you know of an easy source for high phosphate fertilizer. I'm thinking something like 10-30-0 may be available in a liquid form, but I don't think I've ever seen that in a dry fertilizer. Of course a 16-16-16 balanced fertilizer would also promote good root growth.

 

[randy41]

I grow organically and I have been using bone meal. I have an older asparagus patch that I never do anything to except mow around it and it still produces well after 20 years. Not sure what the effect of paying attention to fertility will be on the planting I did this spring.

 

[dave1949]

pic #1: 2 year old aspargus bed and a garden in need of hoeing
pic #2 & #3: raised beds, new this year, #3 taken after putting plants in.
pic #4: the second raised bed.

The tomato plants are over-fertilized I think. We put Scott's fertilized potting mix, lots of peat moss, and composted fish and lobster waste in the beds to start with. also some of our own compost and a bit of topsoil from the garden. It looks a bit too high in nitrogen

Dave.

 

[dave1949]

A mutant blackeyed susan with twin or triplet blossom.
Dave.

 

[jinman]

pic #1: 2 year old aspargus bed and a garden in need of hoeing

Dave, I'm looking at that picture and I think that's your asparagus behind the corn and garlic, but I can't tell. It looks so big and healthy that I'd have guessed it was tomato plants if you hadn't said it was asparagus. Nice!:thumbsup:

 

[dave1949]

Dave, I'm looking at that picture and I think that's your asparagus behind the corn and garlic, but I can't tell. It looks so big and healthy that I'd have guessed it was tomato plants if you hadn't said it was asparagus. Nice!:thumbsup:

Here's a better version of the pic. It's actually a little over fertilized I think. My older asparagus seems to have thicker, stouter stems. These newer plants like to fall over easily. I wish they would make more new shoots rather than grow up like weeds. Not sure, but that may be characteristic of new asparagus plants. Or, maybe we should have harvested from it a bit longer this Spring.

That's a volunteer/over-wintering onion from last year with the seed ball on top in front of the asparagus. I leave it there for kicks.
Dave.

 

[RadarTech]

I just saw this thread!!!

Great pics and awesome garden...

thanks for sharing..


J