What did you do in the garden today?

[Hinotori]

I've thought about trying to make wine. The young leaves when it's not flowering to reduce bitterness I eat.

 

[CrealCritter]

I've heard of dandelion wine before. But never had any, let alone try and make any.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

My hubby's grandfather made dandelion wine. It was incredibly good. IIRC, it was more viscous than the typical wine. Sweet, mellow. Just downright tasty. And, I rarely drink any thing alcoholic.

 

[Beekissed]

Picked some asparagus and steamed it for breakfast....sooooo much more tender and flavorful than the store bought!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Am ripping out my raspberry bed. It is infested with cane borers. So, entire bed is coming out, non-infested very young canes are being re-planted. I am blowing west end of the garden out 4 more feet. This entails removing CP on that end, plus one panel on front and back, resetting the panels, with an added 4' gate at front and back to make up the difference. Then, I hope to plant a full row of raspberries, move the rhubarb, rip out the blueberries. This will open up a lot more sq. feet within the garden footprint. Any existing asparagus crowns will be moved to a new bed parallel to the raspberries. I have found that asparagus is much easier to control, and will happily share it's bed with other plants, so that the asparagus bed does not become a liability in terms of tying up too much garden real estate.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Bee, I envy your asparagus. I absolutely LOVE asparagus. Each season, I do well to harvest enough for 1 - 2 meals for myself. Hope springs eternal. Asparagus falls into the same category with carrots, onions, and peppers for me. Difficult crops to master!

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, I envy your asparagus. I absolutely LOVE asparagus. Each season, I do well to harvest enough for 1 - 2 meals for myself. Hope springs eternal. Asparagus falls into the same category with carrots, onions, and peppers for me. Difficult crops to master!

Will likely be so for me too, as I have never planted it the way they recommend, with the trench and such. I'm trying something new with this putting it into a raised bed with the heavy feeders like rhubarb and strawberries. We'll see if it pans out at all. If I can just get it started producing, they say a plant should produce for 20 years!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I read an article a number of years ago about harvesting "rogue" asparagus plants. We've all seen them: You're driving down the road, and spy some asparagus fronds growing on the side of the road. This guy would mark those locations, then return at the correct time of year. (I'm not sure if he did it in the fall or the spring) He would dig up those crowns. Some of them would be absolutely massive, and he would need to hack them up to make them small enough for him to manage. He'd take them home and plant them, resulting in an instant, well established asparagus bed.

The whole trench idea is often disputed. asparagus is very hardy in terms of tolerance of cold weather. It doesn't make sense to me to bury those crowns so deep. I would think that to bury them deep would force them to work extra hard to get established. But, then... what do I know. My thought process is in alignment with what I know about potatoes: "They" recommend planting potatoes in a barrel or a grow bag, then filling that container throughout the growing season as the potato vines grow, resulting in 2' or more planting medium. Yet, as far as I know, the spuds all tend to grow at about the same depth as the original seed potato.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Our property is full of "rogue" asparagus - around here we call it wild. I will tell you that the wild stuff around here grows from crowns that are about 6" or more deep. One neighbor likes to dig down and harvest it right at the roots - thereby killing the plant!! He doesn't understand why all the asparagus on his land has disappeared... I asked him to NOT harvest asparagus that deep on my property - cut it off at the ground level only.

 

[sumi]

What I did all week in my garden is envy the neighbour and wondering why I spent week breaking my back cleaning up my mess of a backyard when they went from as big a mess to this in about 4 days? Note, the brambles are gone!

And here is the magic wand, parked for the weekend in what used to be a flower bed in my somewhat messy backyard. I'm minding it for the weekend and no, I don't have the key to it!

If I owned this place I would've hired this guy and his machine in a heartbeat... As it is I'm tempted to ask him how much he'd charge me to clear that last 1/3 of the back that I want to put more lawn on...