Trouble with Asparagus, Part 1

Asparagus is super easy to grow for the home gardener. Once the crowns are established, keep your bed weeded, give it lots of compost in the fall, and mulch it well for the winter. By mid-spring, you’ll be rewarded with a bountiful harvest!

But while very hardy, asparagus can be vulnerable to pests. In my garden, I just discovered a very destructive one. The good news is, the remedy can be simple! 

Read on for more about raising asparagus…

Ten days ago, my asparagus crop looked terrible. And it seemed to look worse with each passing day.

The first spears of the season are normally very robust. Starting around the first of May, the smooth asparagus tips are vigorously pushing out of the soil, greenish white and purple-pink around the edges, the spears a healthy dull green.

Not this year. The tips were curled over, and looked like they’d been chewed on, exposing the tiny buds that should turn into ferns. The stalks seemed to have tiny bites taken out of them. And whole spears were turning yellow and shriveling. 

Slugs?

Slugs are the usual culprit at our place when it comes to damaged asparagus. Only there were two problems with my slug theory: first, this month has been so dry I’ve seen exactly one slug in the yard instead of hundreds. And second, slug damage will affect individual spears, one at a time.

Slugs eating spears here and there doesn’t affect the vigor of new tips emerging. And at the beginning of a normal harvesting season, sometimes I’ll be picking 20 spears each day. And more on hot days.

What was odd about this May’s crop was that the entire crop seemed slowed down. There would be maybe seven or eight spears of harvestable size each day, all of them damaged.

It didn’t look like slugs, but I sprinkled some suitable-for-organic-gardens iron sulfate around the bed anyway, like a moat.

The next day, I was in the bed for more discouraging harvesting, when I saw two black and red spotted bugs about 1/8 of an inch long, parked on a small leaf next to a spear.

I’d read about pests that attack asparagus, but didn’t pay much attention. I’d never had a problem all our years raising asparagus. But now, I had to do something; my formerly vigorous crop was shriveling right before my eyes!

As soon as I was inside, I Googled asparagus beetles.

The first prompt was “Asparagus beetles in home gardens.” I clicked on it, and pulled up the University of Minnesota Extension site. I was raised in Minnesota, so this was my lucky link...

Photo: University of Minnesota Extension

Well, BINGO. The U of M Extension photo showed beetles that looked exactly like the pair I’d just seen.

On the site I discovered pretty much everything a home gardener would need to know about asparagus beetles. I’d already seen the beetles can wreak a lot of havoc. But I learned the damaged spears won’t develop properly into the fern stage, when the crown is rebuilding over the summer and fall months. As a result, your crowns can be permanently damaged.

Still, an organic remedy for an asparagus beetle infestation is simple...I'll be back next week for more about how to manage this pest!

Until then, have a wonderful week, and I hope you get to spend lots of time in your garden!

~Susan

Homestead Diary and other fun stuff!

Looking east from our place

Ever wonder what a day in the life of a boonie-living, food-growing writer is like?

Well, you can find out in my May Substack  Newsletter! “Homestead Diary, or, Why I’m Always Behind in the Garden” is free to read for everyone. 

And for you Ireland fans, you’ll also find “A Tale of Two Irish Movies,” including a review of the recent drama, “The Banshees of Inisherin.” 

And if you like your movies on the light side, a fun Hallmark Irish rom-com!

My monthly newsletter includes lots about homestead-style gardening and country living...it's free and open to all, and you don't need to subscribe to read it. I hope you’ll take a look...

See you next week, when I talk about a new garden pest that just invaded our yard!

Garden Explosion!

You never know how fast Mother Nature can work until you leave her to her own devices…

When I left home for a few days in early May, the woods hadn’t yet leafed out, the perennial crops were just barely emerging from the soil, and the raised beds were free of weeds. Upon my return this past weekend, I almost didn’t recognize my own garden! 

In my absence, the yard had burst into a sea of green… And finally, all the trees had actual leaves!

But the downside…

Horsetail was everywhere. Most of the invasive, narrow shoots were at least eight inches high, some were as tall as a foot: filling the vegetable beds, the paths, and any spot of soil that didn’t have a plant in it. 

And while I’ve made my peace with dandelions (well, almost, I’m pretty sure) because they’re so pollinator-friendly, I couldn’t help feeling a bit a dismay to see the wall-to-wall yellow blossoms around the yard. 

But the upside of Spring being sprung…

Rhubarb ready to harvest

The saucer-sized rhubarb leaves were now as big as dinner plates, the tall stalks ready for harvest! (By the way, I priced organic rhubarb yesterday…$5.99/lb.!) 

The week before

And I found a rhubarb bonus:last fall, I had a crown that had given  up the ghost. Producing only tiny leaves all summer, the plant was surely a goner. I put it out of its misery by digging out the roots, covering the area with mulch and said a regretful bye-bye.

I came home to find a leaf sticking out from the cardboard mulch covering the crown. I pulled away the cardboard, and…Voila! Alive!

Rhubarb rising from the dead!

Then there’s the asparagus…I’d left a bed with four little spears. I returned to a harvest-ready crop—and now I’m picking about 15-20 spears each day.

And strawberries. I was concerned for my first-year beds after the last Northeaster front heaved the crowns right out of the soil. But while I was gone…they grew six inches! 

Strawberries putting on growth!

Finally, a different kind of explosion…

Two days ago, I looked across the yard at my blueberry patch and noticed something odd about the old cedar stump in between a couple of shrubs. 

Back when my husband John and I created our blueberry patch, the stump had resisted every effort to dig it out. 

And we knew very well that cedar takes forever to break down. That’s why we still have gigantic slabs of cedar logs littering out woods from a clear cut decades ago.

Anyway, we ended up just leaving the stump right where it was—and it’s been impervious to being removed ever since.

Then Nature took a hand. Yesterday, I went into the patch to check out the strange-looking stump. The short piece of hardware cloth at the entry to the patch (for rabbit protection) was bent over.

As for the stump…It was like a mini-bomb had been planted in its center.

Chunks of stump, large and small, lay in a circle around it. Red “sawdust” from it’s center was everywhere. Yet small holes punctuated the whole inside of the stump.

Well, it didn’t take a genius! There had to have been ants or grubs in that stump, that some enterprising critter snacked on by pulling apart the stump.

The question was, what animal could have been strong enough to destroy the stump?

We’ve had bears get into our orchards and the last time, one did a number on the biggest stump in our yard…but that was an easy guess. The bear had also climbed our crabapple tree and broke it in half. 

Plus it did another kind of number…that is, left an unmistakable calling card!

As for this stump…there was absolutely no damage to the two blueberry shrubs surrounding it. It was like the animal meticulously dug into the stump, had a nice meal, then politely exited.

John and I are guessing a raccoon did the deed—although I’ve never seen one in the neighborhood, much less our yard.

Still, there’s always a first time. So you can bet I’ll be keeping watch for those guys from here on out!

Nursery Starts vs Seeds

My husband John and I raise most of our food from seed, but at the start of the growing season, for “insurance,” we treat ourselves to a few store-bought organic nursery starts.

This particularly chilly spring, when even the weeds are behind schedule, we figure the spinach and onion starts will give our garden a little headwind.

A few days ago, we had a warmish, sunny day—but the forecast called for rain and chilly temps the next few days. The spinach starts looked good—yet I knew they wouldn’t be happy in their four-inch pots for long.

I had some home-grown onion sets to get into the ground too, and sowing peas had been on my radar big-time.

So getting the first of the veggie beds planted needed to happen.

I planted the spinach starts first. I can always buy onions year round, but homegrown baby spinach is one of my favorite spring delicacies. Once the starts were tucked in, I sowed two rows of seed in the rest of the bed. 

It’s interesting that with direct seeding spinach, your plants are actually much more resilient. Often, after a few weeks, the direct seed spinach development will overtake the nursery starts and kind of leave them in the dust!

Anyway, after planting the bed it didn’t seem like a whole lot of spinach, so I decided to plant a second bed.

That is, after I got the onions in the ground! This spring, I’m conducting a little experiment.

Usually we plant organic onion nursery seedlings (raising onion from seed is a challenge I haven’t taken on yet). And I did have a couple of pots of the small, slivery starts.

But late last summer, my onion crop had been a bust. The bulbs didn’t really grow: their average size was about half the size of my thumb. I couldn’t figure out what went wrong…until I cleared out the bed at the end of the summer.

I discovered there was an extensive network of roots in the bed just below the surface.

Well. I figured out the culprit immediately: the B-I-G patch of crocosmia growing about a foot away from this bed. Since the bees and hummingbirds love this tall, vivid red-orange perennial flower, I wasn’t about to get rid of it.

I yarded out the roots sort of resignedly, sure they’d be back full bore next year. Lesson: don’t try growing root veggies in a bed filled with other roots. Maybe shallow-rooted peas.

But…looking at my disappointing harvest, I decided: silver lining!

I could save these shrunken little onion specimens over the winter, to plant the following spring as “sets.”

So on this planting day, I cleared the winter mulch off the raised bed I’d chosen. Next, I did my usual gentle spade-forking: it opens up the soil a bit after the winter rains, creating looser soil for root crops.

After lightly raking the soil level, I planted the sets, though I won’t know if they’ll take until I see green sprouts.

I’m also doing a second experiment this season.

Last summer, I could see my next strawberry crop would be sad. My four beds hadn’t produced many berries; the plants were mostly worn out. They would probably product next to nothing this spring.

But I had one big volunteer that was shooting out runners like crazy!

Usually, I’ll buy nursery strawberry crowns—those are the itty bitty beginnings of a strawberry start. I plant them in March, but the berries won’t be ready to harvest until the following summer. If you ask me, that’s a really long time to wait for a crop!

So I had set the little rooting ends of the runners in pots, to allow the roots to get established. Then last November, I cut the runners from the “mother plant” and transplanted the runners in new beds. 

Here’s the link to my blog post.

Strawberry crown starting spring growth!

Now, about four weeks before I can expect to see some blossoms (future berries), the new plants are looking very robust.

I’ll let you know if this “skip-a-year” experiment bears fruit—pun intended!

That evening, after all my planting, I had a wonderful little epiphany.

One year ago, at spring planting time, I had this strange indecision about where to plant what vegetable—crop rotation being one of the best ways to avoid pests and disease in your annual vegetable crops.

I had already created a garden map so help me figure out my rotations. Yet I was still paralyzed by doubt.

Where to plant it all? What if I pick the wrong spots? Which bed to put the potatoes and carrots, tomatoes and cukes; onion and garlic, beets and zukes…on and on it went. While nothing got in the ground!

I’ve read that it’s human nature to get overwhelmed when we are presented by too many choices—like when you’re in front of the toothpaste aisle at the supermarket, and there’s dozens upon dozens products and brands (and re-brands) to choose from.

Result: you just can’t figure out what to buy!

Anyway, that spring a year ago, my hemming and hawing was so bad my planting schedule was delayed by two or three weeks. Which at planting time is a lot.

I suppose my hesitancy stemmed from the challenging year John and I had experienced—more than the usual health and family concerns, with lots of extra decisions to make about finances, the future, and life in general.

On top of it all, we’d just lost three hens to wildlife in quick succession. And I wasn’t sure what to do about the other two girls, who weren’t doing very well—I think they had PTSD from all the bobcat incursions.

And my strange indecision seemed to culminate with my sorry veggie beds: too many choices to make.

That evening, though, after my productive day, I pulled out my map, studying it once again. Suddenly, I said to myself: Just. Do. It!

Really, what’s the worst that could happen? Not deciding, I was risking some crummy results with my food production. Besides, it’s not rocket science!

So after comparing each bed’s succession of plant families, I simply chose a crop from another plant family that hadn’t been in the bed for two or three years. 

I swiftly assigned each veggie crop to each bed on the map and called it good (as my husband John would say).

Garden rotations for 2023!

Whatever issues or setbacks crop up in the garden this year—and there will be plenty, that’s Mother Nature’s specialty—my indecision won’t be one of them!

Food Gardening Tip—Go Native!

A bunch of interesting tips and suggestions emerged once again at my “Grow a Homestead-Style Food Garden” class this week. I always get lots of really helpful takeaways from our discussions—and figured some of you might benefit from the collective wisdom of the class!

Native Plants and Pollinators

One topic we discussed at length is pollinator-friendly plantings, especially natives.

I know I talk a lot about plants for pollinators, but hey, bees and all kinds of pollinating insects are crucial for a productive food garden!

One experienced gardening student, who raises an epic tomato crop, expressed concern about his orchard: the apple tree blossoms were starting to open but...he wasn’t seeing any bees in his garden!

I realized I’d noticed the same thing!

It’s been a cold spring in our county, and even the early blooming/pollinator-drawing plants haven’t fully bloomed yet. I’ve got a few open daffodils going, but so far, I’ve seen exactly one bumblebee in my yard. No other bees of any kind.

So the lack of pollinators have me worried too. The buds on my blueberry shrubs are getting nice and plump—by the time they open, I wonder if I’ll have enough pollinators around to do the job.

In my observation, all kinds of bees and other pollinators will stay under cover until: a) It’s warm enough to lure them out of their hidey holes, and b) there’s plenty of food sources to browse. And this spring, with temps considerably below normal, those sources are few and far between.

(The cold is likely the reason the neighborhood bears are still hibernating. I haven't seen any of the usual spring/summer/fall bear sign on our lane.)

Still, when I poked around the garden today, I found a few positive signs—plants that do fine with three or so more weeks of possible frosts ahead. These plants are actually starting to blossom. Among those are native plants and weeds (really native!) like dandelions.

Now I know some people eat dandelion greens, and even cultivate them. So to these folks, dandelions are definitely not weeds. Still, in days gone by (actually, just last fall), seeing my garden full of big yellow dandelion flowers filled me with dread.

All I could think was, oh no, I’m going to have to do So. Much. WEEDING.

Then my husband John reminded me that the yellow flowers are one of the first plants providing food for pollinators. I did know that, but it was good to hear it again. So I’m trying to look more appreciatively at dandelions.

And if you can stand it, you might consider leaving them be for a few weeks, until you have a wider variety of flowers available!

Violas going gangbusters in my asparagus patch

Another early pollinator-friendly plant in my yard are violas. To my knowledge, they’re not exactly a native, but violas grow like one!

Violas, I know, are prized by foodie folks for being not only edible but very tasty flowers. 

My daughter’s wedding theme actually centered around violas, and happily at the time John and I had a garden full of them to supply her.

When we moved to our Foothills acreage, naturally we brought a pot of violas from our city patch…and now they are everywhere. So pervasive in fact, that I can’t help but see them as weeds.

They especially flourish where the rabbits can’t get them, particularly in my asparagus bed that’s guarded by 2-foot poultry wire year round.  At least twice each summer, I have to pull scads of violas out of the bed so the asparagus doesn’t have to compete with them for water and nutrients.

And yet…they are blooming right now, in this chilly April (In fact, we had a bit of snow the other day, and this morning it was down in the 20s.) Thinking of the bees getting hungry, I’m letting the violas do their crazy invasive thing for the next few weeks.

Red currant--the blossoms last a few weeks too!

Wild red currant is another early and big draw for bees and hummingbirds too. This pic is from a previous season--this spring, the blossoms are at least two weeks late opening. A lot of natives tend to have small flowers, but red currant has quite showy blossoms!

Here’s another little native plant that’s a bee delicacy: native bleeding heart. Their blossoms are just starting to open too—ready for pollinators to dine on. 

First bloomers are in the warmest spot in the garden!

Aren’t they lovely? John and I thought so, and early on, we found one up in the woods, dug it up, and stuck the plant in the ground. And then discovered, wowsa, are they invasive. They may look delicate, but they have  robust rhizomes like you wouldn’t believe, which creative large underground networks. 

Every once in a while, I’ll try and tear them out of my food-raising areas. But every spring, despite my best efforts to keep them under control, that bleeding heart comes roaring back!

How about your garden? What plants do you have to bring in pollinators?

Free New Mini-Book: The Little Farm Horror Movie

Free eBook in my April Newsletter 

Remember that scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic movie, “The Birds,” when Tippi Hendren creeps down a lonely road with birds everywhere? 

Birds hovering above her head, birds lining the road alongside her, their beady eyes watching her every move?

Well, picture not hundreds of birds, but millions of caterpillars—and you have my true-life story, in a free mini-ebook:

“Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Tent Caterpillars.” 

It’s the story of a two-year plague at our house, with critters devouring our garden…and taking over our lives. 

You’ll find the mini-book in my latest newsletter, Little Farm Writer—“Finding our Shangri-La & The Little Farm Horror Movie.” 

By the way, you don’t have to subscribe to the newsletter to read this issue or any of the others! 

Hope you’re having a wonderful time in your garden this week! I’ve got starts and seeds to get into the ground pronto…what are you planting?

Pollinator-Friendly Plants and Homestead-Style Food Gardening

Here’s another spring surprise I found in my garden this week…

Overwintered cilantro!

It’s not a hardy herb at all, and I’m not at all sure how these little seedlings made it through the extreme cold spell we had the week before Christmas—and all the other winter Northeasters that hit our area since November. 

But I’m delighted it’s in my garden.

Now, I don’t care for cilantro at all. At least for eating. (Okay, a bit is nice in guac but that’s as far as I go!)

And this plant can self-seed so prolifically it can get invasive if you let it get established in one of your food-growing beds. 

So you might wonder, why am I happy about finding cilantro already thriving in early April?

Well these cilantro plants’ head start means they will be in flower far earlier than usual. And pollinators love the flowers! Cilantro flowers are only small clusters of tiny white blossoms but they will bring in lots of different pollinators. You’ll see tiny beneficial wasps working the blossoms over, and lots of other little beneficial insects too. 

And since it self-seeds, it’s the gift that keeps on giving…for free!

Cilantro is a small plant, and doesn’t take much space, but it makes a big impact on your garden’s pollinator population.

In my upcoming gardening class, “Grow a Homestead-Style Food Garden,” scheduled for April 18, one of the topics we discuss is the role and importance of pollinator-attracting plantings. Because let’s face it, you can’t grow a range of food without pollinators! 

If you think the class sounds promising… It actually inspired my free ebook, Little Farm in the Garden. All the class content and more is in the book. If you’d like to take a look, just click on the book cover to your right!