asparagus

The asparagus arrived the other day in the mail. 100 two-year-old crowns.

So we set to digging...

We did two 30-foot beds, 12 inches deep, 18 inches wide. An asparagus wants to be transplanted very deep, into rich soil. It sends down a tap root that can be up to 5 feet long! These guys are perennials and they'll be around for a long long time. Planting them is quite the investment. I intend to grow this little plot over the next couple years so that I have a space about 75x75 feet, full of tender spears in the springtime. We won't have any asparagus to harvest this year, but we'll have a modest stand next year I hope and many many more in the future!

Once we dug the ditches, we put some really good compost in the base and rototilled it in, giving a good, loose, mix... just like an asparagus root likes it.

I have to say, I'm thinking about my horses differently these days... They used to turn hay into poo that I had to deal with. Now all those little poos are like gold nuggets. I pick them up daily and put them in a huge pile that I then water and cover with a black tarp and turn it with my tractor... getting it good and hot so that it breaks down into a super rich soil that I amend my very sandy soil with.

There they are... two old geldings. The dark horse was born on the place and I rode him for 9 years in 4-H. He's still ornery and quite possibly the love of my life. The white is an old arab, and champion endurance horse. Between the two of them, they produce the goods for the garden. Couldn't do it without them!