Asparagus and Spider Condos

I am so excited to harvest our three year old asparagus patch. For those that do not know; asparagus is planted in late fall / early winter with the first shoots appearing the next spring. Conventional wisdom says you should not harvest asparagus the first two springs to allow the crowns to get well established. I have been very patient with our asparagus patch the last two springs (okay, I ate one or two shoots) but this year, asparagus is on the menu. Our asparagus patch should produce every spring for the next 20 years or so. I plan on putting in two more beds this fall.

History lesson:

Asparagus is pictured in an ancient Egyptian stone carving from 3000 BC as an offering to the gods. The Romans would harvest it in the spring and carry it high into the alps to freeze it. They would keep it there until the feast of Epicurus. Asparagus is known to some as "sparrow-grass". It is a good companion plant for tomatoes. I am going to plant a tomato in the middle of my asparagus bed this year and see if they do well together. 

The peas I planted in early march are finally coming up. I am not having a good germination rate. I believe this is due to a very bad cold snap we had after I planted. I love peas, so I hope I get a good harvest this spring.

This plant is so hardy. I put a spade shovel in the middle of it early this spring and harvested about half of the roots. It doesn't care at all. Russian Comfrey belongs in everyone's garden. It is a dynamic accumulator, bringing hard to reach nutrients to the surface and into your compost. It can also be used as a shredded mulch or side dressing. 

I planted a few thousand white clover seeds a couple weeks ago. They are coming up all over an area where I killed the grass off. I hope they spread everywhere.

Seeking roommate, preferably a fly or other soft bodied insect to share a one bedroom condo with sunroof and large attached deck. Situated in a small community of early spring flowers. Praying mantis need not apply. 

Operation "kill a bunch of grass and plant corn"

Disclaimer: I have been lazy with the pics lately. 

I have been using my cell phone camera mostly because I keep forgetting to grab my good camera. So the pics recently have not been edited in Photoshop like normal. =) 

I put this tarp down with mike's help about a month and a half, almost two months ago. 

This appears to be the perfect amount of time to kill everything under it. I never checked the progress so I am not sure if I could have pulled it earlier. The next time I do this I will check more frequently. 

At first I tried to rake the dead grass but that took to much time and energy. I decided to pull the weed-whacker out and make short work of the grass. 

Here is what it looked like after I weed-whacked it. I raked all the dead grass into a pile and put it back down as mulch after we planted everything.

This complex system consisted of two sticks and a piece of string. I used a tape measure and a drum stick to make the holes for the corn at the correct depth and spacing. We planted marigolds at the ends of each row to mark the rows. Dara planted butternut squash, spaghetti squash and two varieties of watermelon in between the rows. This allows us to grow more food in a smaller footprint while the squash and watermelon leaves will keep the weeds at bay. I will post more pics as the plants come up.