2012 Garden pictures and progress

[hangin'witthepeeps]

My asparagus bed is a mess. The ferns are around 6 foot tall, can this be trimmed back or will this be detrimental?

 

[diggerthechickenman]

my squash plants all had some kind of mold starting to grow on them so i pulled them all up along with the peas that i think i burnt up with fertalizer tilled it up and planted corn and more squash in a different place, i was only gone for 5 days and i guess the rain helped the grass and weeds grow , my garden lookes bare now but im hoping the corn and all will start to grow soon . because it didn't even look like my garden when i got back trust me . it was almost imbarrassing. but 1 good day of some work and all is back to normal. :tools

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Digger, that is beautiful with the sunflowers in the middle. I forget every year to plant sunflowers, I wonder if I have enough time?

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I have had 3 cherokee purple tomatoes ripe this past week and they are the best tasting tomato I've ever eaten. Lovely firm flesh and sweet taste. My 4 plants are well over 7 feet tall, pushing 8. I was wondering if I could top them and use the top cutting to start late tomatoes. I'm in 7b and we won't have frost until late October at the earliest and it's only a light dew frost.

Next year I will plant more. The chadwick cherries were a disappointment, but that my be my fault. I don't think they had proper drainage in the new bed and I will rework this one for next year, so sad.

 

[ducks4you]

My asparagus bed is a mess. The ferns are around 6 foot tall, can this be trimmed back or will this be detrimental?

Leave them alone, bc the plants are growing food for next year. I looked up a saved article for you, and here is a quote:
"Do not cut down the fern growth at the end of the growing season. The all-male hybrids stay green until frost, enabling photosynthesis to occur longer throughout the season. Leave the dead fern growth intact over the winter. This catches snow for additional soil moisture and keeps the soil temperature about 5 degrees F cooler than bare soil with no covering of dead fern. The cooler soil temperature is helpful in delaying the early emergence of asparagus in the spring, when air temperatures might rise prematurely and then fall again, predisposing the spears to frost damage. Frost-damaged spears should be snapped and discarded.
Remove the old fern growth by cutting or mowing as low as possible during the first week of April in central Ohio. Dead stalks are very sharp and can easily skin knuckles when harvesting new spears."
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1603.html

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Thanks ducks4you, I haven't cut them. Now I'm glad I didn't. They are over 6 feet tall and I had to "tie" them up to get them out of the garden path and other beds. I may have to build a fence around the box to support them in future years. Wild hairy things, lol.

 

[ducks4you]

Speaking of asparagus, I did some companion planting with mine, primarily bc I had to remove the stumps left by 7 arbor vitae and one tree of paradise in the bed. Here are the sunflowers and cosmos and volunteer tomatoes and a couple of geraniums which all but hide the asparagus fronds. I planted purple passion and...something else that's all male.

HERE is the later planted bed, on the east side--all south facing--where you can see the new asparagus coming up. I picked up some cheap Mary Washington for this side, but I'm just trying to establish the bed. I will plant more next year, AND I'd like to put in some Jerusalem Artichokes next year where the sunflowers are growing.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

ducks4you this is my asparagus. They are about 6' tall in this picture and I tied them up with some baling twine so I could walk through this corner.

 

[lesa]

Hangin, that is how mine look too. They are well over my head! I wish I had known this, before I planted my asparagus bed- front and center! I keep trying to think of some way to contain them, that looks attractive. So far, I have not! But, I do love that asparagus!!

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

It's a 2x6 bed of them. I don't know if they multiply or not, if they do I may have to dig them up at some time and spread them out. The 2x10 bed to the right has cherry tomatoes this year, I was hoping to plant more crowns next year in this bed. I can put up a cattle panel in front after the harvest. That way they are contained and out of the other beds and aisles.