The asparagus is finally up! It feels like it took an abnormally long time for this to happen, but as I was mentally drafting this post I realized that 1) I don't exactly remember when I planted the asparagus, although I feel like it was late May, and 2) I haven't come across anything yet in my reading that says how long it takes asparagus plants to come up. None of my books mentioned anything about a month+ long wait, though, so I'm sticking with my gut feeling that these are late blooming asparagus plants. But it doesn't matter, because they're actually here! I was weeding the other beds in the garden on Sunday, and noticed some funny looking plants in the asparagus bed. In my many weeks of farming, I've developed a handy two-pronged test for identifying weeds. First, if bugs are eating it, there's a chance it's something I planted. Bugs much prefer my veggies to weeds. Second, if it shows up in more than one bed, and it's not something I planted in more than one bed, it's a weed. The funny new plants in the asparagus bed failed question one, as they were untouched by bugs, but they certainly didn't look like anything else in my other beds. When I looked at them more closely, I noticed that the very slender stalks resemble asparagus quite a bit. I consulted my gardening bible, and it had a picture of a well-developed asparagus bed, with lots of frondy plants waving in the breeze. I don't have that, but my little guys are at least trying. As a congratulations for surviving present to them, I finally weeded their bed. I'd been hestitant to weed it before, partially because I didn't want to inadvertantly pull up any asparagus plants, and partially because I was pretty irritated that I couldn't see any asparagus. Now, though, they have a mostly weeded bed, and I told them several times how proud I am that they've joined the garden, just in case they're like my dogs and enjoy verbal praise.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
My fashionably late asparagus
The asparagus is finally up! It feels like it took an abnormally long time for this to happen, but as I was mentally drafting this post I realized that 1) I don't exactly remember when I planted the asparagus, although I feel like it was late May, and 2) I haven't come across anything yet in my reading that says how long it takes asparagus plants to come up. None of my books mentioned anything about a month+ long wait, though, so I'm sticking with my gut feeling that these are late blooming asparagus plants. But it doesn't matter, because they're actually here! I was weeding the other beds in the garden on Sunday, and noticed some funny looking plants in the asparagus bed. In my many weeks of farming, I've developed a handy two-pronged test for identifying weeds. First, if bugs are eating it, there's a chance it's something I planted. Bugs much prefer my veggies to weeds. Second, if it shows up in more than one bed, and it's not something I planted in more than one bed, it's a weed. The funny new plants in the asparagus bed failed question one, as they were untouched by bugs, but they certainly didn't look like anything else in my other beds. When I looked at them more closely, I noticed that the very slender stalks resemble asparagus quite a bit. I consulted my gardening bible, and it had a picture of a well-developed asparagus bed, with lots of frondy plants waving in the breeze. I don't have that, but my little guys are at least trying. As a congratulations for surviving present to them, I finally weeded their bed. I'd been hestitant to weed it before, partially because I didn't want to inadvertantly pull up any asparagus plants, and partially because I was pretty irritated that I couldn't see any asparagus. Now, though, they have a mostly weeded bed, and I told them several times how proud I am that they've joined the garden, just in case they're like my dogs and enjoy verbal praise.
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If they are really like the dogs they should be chewing on eachother.
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