Back Forty Update

Well, I haven’t done one of these in a while. There still isn’t, and won’t be, much going on in the back yard gardens any more since the groundhog families are here to stay. In fact, one of them ran up close to me when I was standing still pondering the state of the Back Forty. My neighbor across the street has named them and feeds them so they are probably getting fairly tame.

So, given the state of the Back Forty and its wild inhabitants, I decided to plant the womb garden with asparagus. I may be wrong, but over the past few years, the groundhogs have left the little bit of asparagus alone. It may be because it was surrounded with feverfew, which was one strategy of mine. I also needed something that would be low maintenance and perennial, so asparagus and walking onions is the plan for now.

I weeded what I could without causing myself a lot of pain, and then Thomas, “The Plant Guy,” came over and dug and planted my asparagus for me. Here are the before photos.

Behind the womb garden is the blueberry bush, an elderberry bush that is just beginning to thrive, a raspberry cane that needs to be moved, and a big-ass fig tree that didn’t get pruned this winter. Thomas is going to help me move the raspberries to their own bed later on. I’m going to get some bamboo and build a trellis for them.

Hey, let’s talk about that washpan! One of the most useful things I own that I brought back from my mother’s house. It is lightweight aluminum but sturdy enough to hold water and heavy things easily. I don’t know how old it is. I remember mostly using it to carry laundry to the clothesline before we got a dryer. Sandy has eyeballed it for donation several times and I think he is nuts. I’ll probably take this sucker to Portugal with me! Anyway, in the photo above I soaked the asparagus roots and crowns before Thomas planted them.

I picked four spears from the old plants to add to a pasta dish this week, and that is the most I have picked at one time so far. Two years from now, if we are still here, we should have plenty of asparagus to eat.