I thought my friend Johanna and some of you might enjoy listening to Molly Fisk’s thoughts on asparagus. It is an MP3 podcast. Or you can read the essay, here.
I know we are past asparagus season, and well into the heat that makes lettuces bolt. Hopefully you have some Swiss chard which is delicious well into the heat of summer before it, too, will bolt with seed stalks, although I always remember the leaves being good additions to quiche dishes through most of the season.
Today a newbie mower cracked the septic tank cover. Don’t ask. Newbie mowers do things that you don’t imagine will happen to either the garden or the mower itself. The mower seems to have survived. However it gave me a chance to field a DIY idea I had to my husband. Why not make a movable deck that covers that area? Big enough for a wooden picnic table right next to a garden space and not too far from the house and from his office space. He liked the idea.
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Sorry about your septic tank cover.
No. I’m really sorry about your tank cover!
Why snap asparagus? Pare them with a peeler. Waste not, want not an’ all that.
I enjoyed this. Asparagus season has finished so where did the time go?
Love your feedback Rob. I always peeled asparagus myself, but then I don’t grow my own, and find grocery asparagus NEEDS peeling. Maybe I will follow Johanna’s good advice and try my hand at putting in a row for next year.
I love eating it;)
HI: Interesting, I put in 25 Asparagus plants the year. We love asparagus so I guess in a couple of years will be eating our own.
Septic Systems can be a pain. Our is still working no problems close to 35 years old.
Don’t know who the mower is but you need to better train him or her or replace.
Talk again soon,
John
We have to keep training new ones as each one grows up and leaves….
i guess i have genetic asparagus memory…my grandmother always had a huge old bed. i put in 20 plants when i moved here in 1983, and 20 more the year after. these are the same asparagus i have been writing about recently. once the work of putting them in is done, they are relatively care-free.
i have found that my woodstove ash generously applied several times in fall and winter seem to really
boost their growth.the potash makes stromg stems and stalks.
no other thing i have put in, during the 23 years i have been here, has given such a return on
the investment and such pleasure,
each season.
The septic system is new (installed in 2004). What was damaged is the plastic access lid that provides access to the heavy concrete lid on the actual septic tank. I called the guy who installed the system and he thinks he has a lid on hand…cost @$25. As Ilona has mentioned, we have lost numerous mowers over the years thru our teenage children who mowed. As we all know, teenagers know how to do everything best. And, as we also know (those of us with kids)…raising kids is an expensive undertaking.
$25 isn’t as bad as expected- but diy idea is probably much more (mushroom factor again…. )
Still, teens can be helpful – they made quick work of clearing the cracks between the fieldstone walkway :)
They’re good kids.