Asparagus

The asparagus are on! 

We've had asparagus soup already, as well as a new recipe.  Rather than boil or steam the asparagus and serve with cheese sauce, I fried it up in butter with onion, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Yum!  Today Ann did some in the oven with olive oil, salt, and pepper - another winner. 

So far all but one of our stalks has come from the asparagus we started a few years ago, and only one stalk from the plants we planted last fall.  But I suppose that's to be expected.  Looking forward to lots more asparagus this season!

Watering, Weeding, and Asparagus

Yesterday, while Matthew napped, I went jogging and then buckled down to the garden. I rearranged soaker hoses to start watering the front flower bed, where the pansy seeds are. I watered the veggie garden, the flower bed, the peach tree, and the asparagus patch.

Then Matthew awoke, actually I accidentally woke him up - oops. But it was nice warm weather out, so I plopped him in the stroller and he watched me weed the veggie patch. I got a lot done before he started getting antsy. Then I delivered him to Dave to watch flint knapping for a while. Matthew enjoyed the change of scenery.

While watering the asparagus, I discovered my first asparagus stalk. It's an itsy bitsy wimpy asparagus stalk, but I think that's to be expected since it's the first year. Seriously, it's almost as skinny as a blade of grass, but it's standing proud. I'll be watching for 9 more baby asparagus stalks coming up soon.

After all the watering, it rained last night, more or less negating the effort. Nevertheless, the soaker hoses needed rearranging, and I got quite a few weeds pulled.

Bill gave us a wheelbarrow full of mushroom soil that's weed free to use for fertilizer and mulch. This is the first year they've used this stuff so it's kind of experimental. I'm really hoping it's not only weed free but also mushroom free because if mushrooms get started, I have no idea if they can ever truly be stopped....

By the way, the peas are looking great, and the spinach is starting to show its first true leaves.

Weather today through Tuesday: 56/36 T-storms, 56/31 sunny, 54/36 sunny, 56/43 chance of storm. We may get even more natural watering. :)

Planting Asparagus Roots

This morning, while I took care of Matthew, Dave watered all the trees we planted yesterday, AND dug a 2' by 8' trench, one foot deep for the asparagus.

I got the stroller out, so Matthew could sit and watch me plant the asparagus, but had to feed him first, and he fell asleep, so I left him in the crib and took the monitor with me.

I mixed the remainder of an open bag of manure into the trench with some dirt and created mounds over which to spread the asparagus roots. I spread the roots over the mounds and began refilling the trench. At which point Dave offered to take over and the refilling commenced at a much faster pace. Meanwhile, I carried water for the asparagus.

Thank you, Dave. You're the best!

While we were out working in the garden, we discovered a couple of tears in the pea trellis, so Dave got out the twine, and I repaired it. I hope it'll be sturdy enough for the peas. I almost wonder if we should jump ship on this version of pea support and go for a heavy duty trellis netting or Burpee's pea fence. Of course the netting costs $11 for 30' and the fence costs $32 for 16' or $56 for 32'. Maybe I'll give the twine a chance and see how it does.

The forecasted weather for today through Tuesday is 50/31, 59/34, 49/27, 49/31 with clouds on Saturday and Tuesday and sun on Sunday and Monday. I hope the new trees will be all right with nighttime temperatures getting down below freezing.

Peaches and Asparagus

As promised, here are more details on the peach tree and asparagus roots that arrived today from Stark Bro's.

I got a Blushingstar(R) Standard Peach Tree ($22) and a pack of 10 Jersey Knight Giant Asparagus roots ($12).

This variety of peach matures 25 days later than Redhaven, which, in Pennsylvania would put maturity around August 26. Should be not too far off that here in Maryland. The asparagus says it matures early April through mid-May.

The peach tree got planted today, along with a bunch of other trees. The asparagus is on tap for tomorrow.

A Big Day for Mailorder Plants

A while back I ordered a peach tree and 10 asparagus roots from Stark Bro's. Long before that I responded to the National Arbor Day Foundation's membership drive / 10 free trees campaign. Everything showed up today, so Dave and I are busy planting. Actually, I'm mostly directing with baby in tow, and Dave's mostly planting... sorry Dave, and thank you.

Don't tell anybody, but we're not planting all of the free trees... just the ones we like and have space for. Sorry Arbor Day. Ironically, now that I'm looking at their Website, I realize if I'd known I could get 10 Colorado Blue Spruces instead of the 10 flowering trees, they would've all found a home as part of a wind barrier. Oh well, maybe next year.

Anyway, the trees are so small, they're going in a row alongside my vegetable garden for a year or two before transplanting to their final to-be-determined locations. From the house toward the field we'll be planting Crape Myrtle, White Dogwood, White Dogwood, Eastern Redbud, and Eastern Redbud in that order. This way, I'll know which is which when it comes time to transplant them.

The peach tree got planted out back near the dogwoods, and the asparagus are going along the sunny side of the storage shed near the trash bin. I'll write more about the peach tree and asparagus in another post.

While we were in the tree planting mood, we also planted our miniature potted Christmas tree we've been watering since Christmas. So it can serve again as some wind protection, and possibly yet again as a full size cut Christmas tree. It was starting to look a little sad; I don't think it was getting enough sunlight, so I'm glad to have it planted.

By the way, does anyone want a Sargent Crabapple, Washington Hawthorn, or Goldenraintree?