Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1879 — An Asparagus Bed. [ARTICLE]

An Asparagus Bed.

He who lives in the country and has no asparagus bed has at least one heavy sin of omission on his conscience for which he never can give an adequate excuse. If the man who does “not provide for his own house is worse than an infidel,” he that will not “bother” with an asparagus bed is anything but orthodox, and yet can not call himself a rationalist. Some are under the delusion that an asparagus bed is an abstruse garden problem and an expensive luxury. Far from it. The plants of Conover's Colossal (the best variety) can be obtained of any seedsman at slight cost. I have one large bed that yields almost a daily supply from the middle of April till late in June, and I shall make another bed next spring in this simple way: As early in April as the ground is dry enough—the sooner the better —I shall choose some warm, early, but deep soil, enrich it well, and then on one side of the plot open a furrow or trench eight inches deep. Down this furrow I shall scatter a heavy coat of rotten compost, and then run a plow or pointed hoe through it again. By this process the earth and compost are mingled, and the furrow rendered about six inches deep. Along its side, one foot apart, I will place one-year-old plants, spreading out the roots, and taking care to keep the crown or top of the plant five inches below the surface when level; then half fill the furrow over the plants, and when the young shoots are well up, fill the furrow even. I shall make the furrows two feet apart, and, after planting as much space as I wish, the bed is made for the next fifty years. In my father’s garden there was a good bed over fifty years old. The young shoots should not be cut for the first two years, and only sparingly the third year, on the same principle that we do not put young colts at work. The asparagus is a marine plant, and dustings of salt sufficient to kill the weeds will promote its growth.— E. P. Roe, in Harper's Magazine for April.