We got our Jersey Supreme F1 asparagus and Jewel strawberries from Johnny's Selected Seeds up in Maine. I thought they arrived a tad early (first week in April), but then again, our schedule is way behind. We've kept everything moist in the meantime. The asparagus went in an existing bed in the northeast corner and we build one of what will be several new beds to hold the strawberries (see pics below).
The beds were dressed up with a heaping dose of leaf mold and freshly screened compost. What a pleasant surprise with the leaf mold. We have tons (and I mean TONS) of leaves and each year, I haul them back and make big huge mounds in the woods. I knew one day I'd use it. The pile I pulled from was from three years ago.
Here are some pictures of the asparagus crowns in the bed. I went down six or seven inches and placed the crowns on small mounds. Covered them up a few inches and voila, their in! Now we wait for shoots and the systematic back-fill of the soil.
With that done, I prepped the rest of the existing beds. Tomorrow I hope to plant a few different lettuces, radishes, and lots of spinach. I also need to get my peas in though without some of the additional new beds built, I might have to get creative. We'll see. In a few more weeks, I'll transplant the first round of tomatoes, get the cukes and first corn in, broccoli, peppers, beans, onions, and whatever else we have laying around.
How are your gardens going? You know what's amazing? I know of three people who are planting gardens for the first time this season. That is awesome and a testament to the growing awareness and dialog about good, local food. For me, it continues to be a learning experience: try, try again, and they try even more.
Here's to the start of the season!
