Peas and Asparagus

When the sun came out on Saturday, I had to get into the garden and do a few more things before the month of February slipped away.  First on the list was to get some asparagus into the ground.  I should have done this years ago – in fact I tried a couple of years ago but I didn’t do it right.  The good garden space is always in demand and asparagus needs a permanent location.  Last time, I had some space just on the north side along the fence.  I dug the crowns in too deeply, the sun never shone on the ground behind the fence, and the crowns never grew.  So this year I’m trying another not totally desirable location under a big fir tree, but compromises must be made.  This was an area of lawn, so I dug out the sod and then dug a another shovel depth to loosen the soil and added two big wheelbarrows of compost to the trench.  I worked all this in and planted the crowns to be a couple of inches below the surface with the roots going deeper.  Asparagus likes well drained soil, so I’m hoping the big fir tree will act to pull excess moisture from the soil.  Time will tell.  Asparagus practice!

Peas also went into the ground on Saturday.  I had planted some peas about four weeks ago, but nothing was happening with them.  My usual problem is that the ground is not well-drained and the seeds just rot before they germinate.  But now things are a bit drier, and this time I was able to dig in a bunch of compost and hill the row a bit so the soil will drain better.  Fresh seed and fresh pea inoculant can’t hurt either – so I’m more hopeful for this planting.

Year-round gardening has year-round rewards.  I picked a nice Purple Cape cauliflower for supper on Sunday.