Transplanting Asparagus

Transplanting asparagus



This week at the Farm it was time to transplant the small asparagus patch from behind the chicken coop to a more accessible area.For years now I have ignored this little treasure so I thought it time to move it out with the rest of the garden where it would get more attention.

Now when deciding to plant asparagus you must remember to pick a good spot preferably in the northern area of your garden, that way the plant does not shade out anything else that may be growing.You must also pick out a spot where the asparagus can stay permanently as it is a perennial .A good bed of asparagus should produce spears for up to 15 years or more.

Now for anyone planting asparagus for the first time These instructions are pretty basic.The only part of this that may be a challenge to some is digging the trench, the rest is easy.

1.Using a pick and shovel dig a trench 10 inches deep and 1 foot wide.Lightly dress the bottom of the trench with compost making sure to mix with soil at the bottom of the trench.

2.Place crowns in trench giving 1 ft spacing between crowns (be sure they are right side up too.)Make sure to spread the roots out. I'm using crowns that have been growing for many years that is why they are so big in the photo.When you buy crowns the roots are usually only a few inches long.

3.Once you have all your roots set , back fill over the crowns with soil. Now here is the part you need to remember, do not fill up the trench completely. The most you will want tofill over the crowns is with only 3-4 inches of soil. Why? The asparagus spears being newwill have a hard time pushing up through all that soil if the trench was filled all the way.This way once you first spot spears popping through go ahead and back fill into the trench.Repeat this until you have completely filled the hole. The asparagus should have no problem coming through.Once you're finished you can dress the tops of your beds with straw or dried leaves.

At some point in the next month I plan on expanding the asparagus patch in the garden to include 200 + crowns.(I have many people to feed). I have spent a good part of my free time over the last week looking through different catalogs to pick out the right variety for my needs but I must admit that I have not gotten very far in my search. I'm stuck wondering if I should plant only male crowns, female and male crowns or Heirlooms or hyrids. If I am able to, I will stick to male and female heirlooms if i can find them.

For any home gardeners wanting to plant asparagus in their garden the better nurseries offer a choice of packages with males crowns only or packages with both female and male crowns. Whatever choice you make I think the decision to make asparagus a part of your garden and diet will be one you will not regret.

Cover Crops

Today in the larger part of the garden I began the first of my Cover cropping.Most of this area has been empty since early summer.I'm only using a small part of this field this fall so growing a cover crop in the rest of it is the best thing to do. In the past, sections of garden I did not use were left empty but now I'm taking the next step in building up soil fertility.

The seed I will be using is a mix of vetch and rye.http://www.highmowingseeds.com/organic-seeds-rye-hairy-vetch-mix.html I have grown purple vetch in the past in other parts of the garden so I know it will do well. It also grows wild along the road near the Pinkerton avocado orchard planted by farmers who worked the land years ago.

First I removed all the weeds that were growing here I also removed any stones or large rocks that might get under or ruin the tiller. One plant that grows well here and is very tasty is purslane . The plants are too large to use now so tilling it in only adds organic matter to the soil plus the parts that have already gone to seed. Once the cover crop establishes itself the purslane will grow back along with it giving us something extra to add to our salad bowls.

Once my seed bed was ready I used the back of my rake to create furrows to plant my seed in. After my seed is spread I used the rake again to cover the little furrows.

Most of the seed that I planted made it into the furrows but some were left at the surface after I used the rake to cover them some will be picked off by birds but most of t will later germinate and root into the soil surface. I then water the entire area twice a day.



2 weeks later the first seedlings come through .

Raised Beds For Garlic

This week brought out a number of projects around the Farm from moving freshly picked Jujube fruit (Chinese dates) out to some of our customers in the area to helping to clear lumber from the Pinkerton avocado orchard. But most important was the work that needed to be done in the garden such as, irrigating crops, weeding, and playing Keystone Cops with the critters that seem to feed very well in the garden. Then I got to the fun part, harvesting veggies like eggplant, tomato, okra, zucchini, yellow crookneck, butternut, Hakiado winter squashes, melons and peppers. Within a few hours a good 200 lbs of veggies were picked and taken in to the kitchen and storage.

The most important new project was the preparation of raised beds for garlic planting. This year I'm using Peaceful Valley's Early California White Garlic.http://www.groworganic.com/item_FP556_Garlic__California_Early_White_O.html

It was not necessary to spend an obscene amount of my budget on a fancy or better tasting garlic that could cost any where from 12-18 bucks per lb. For the kitchen a simple, plain garlic is needed and the price was within my budget. In the past I grew 12-14 different, amazing garlic varieties in the garden, but in the end, when all was harvested and cured they were all used the same. Until a chef who knows his garlics appears, I'm keeping it simple.

I did plant some heirloom garlic varieties last year and those were saved, but I'm using those in a different area of the garden. From what is planted this year much will be saved and used again next year. Hopefully enough will be saved so I never have to buy seed garlic ever again and I'll be adding to my growing seed bank, giving myself a safe and secure seed source to choose from for the coming years.

By 6am I tilled an area that had been fallow for most of this year. A few weeks before, compost and manure had already been spread over this area. Once tilled in, I marked off an area with wood stakes and string line 40 inches wide by 57 ft long. Then I used a flat ended shovel to create my raised beds. I give 20 inches between beds leaving enough space to work and walk through with my size 13s. Once the soil has been raised between the marked off area, compost and manure was added again. This was mixed into the first few inches of the bed giving the garlic a better medium to root into. The soil in the this section of garden had been hard as a rock two years ago. In the middle of the raised beds there once sat a fire pit. Where the tomato plants are in the background had been a road . Cover cropping and constant working of the soil for two years loosened up plenty of small stones and large rocks but revealed descent virgin soil where I planted a very successful salad garden last year. However here the soil still tends to dry out quickly wanting to go back to what it used to be, so to prepare for fall planting more and more compost will be used. Before next summer cover crops will be planted.

Once the beds were ready I set up 2 lines of T-tape irrigation, each 4 inches from the center.

I separated the garlic using only the biggest cloves for these beds. The smaller cloves will later be planted along with other crops .

I spaced the garlic about 4-5 inches away from each other with the cloves 2 inches away from the drip tape. 400 cloves per bed were planted. I finished each bed with a straw mulch.

Now I wait nine months. Fun.