Prepping the asparagus bed for spring

This is going to be a quick and unsatisfactory note.  I’m away from the farm at the moment and poised to be heading off to New York and Minneapolis for a bit of holiday fun.

Yes, even gardeners put down their trowels for a bit of distraction. And the reason for the journey is a twenty year reunion with old pals from our Moscow days.

But I realized that there was one other job I madly rushed before I stepped into the car and roared down the hill to the train.

I prepared my asparagus bed for spring.

All winter the long long bed has had a lovely duvet cover of thick mulch to protect it from the weather.  But this is also a haven for mole rats when the weather warms.  And the mulch I had placed over the bed last week – cut down eragrostis grasses – were too thick and unruly for any emerging spears.

So I cleared it all away and gave the last weed of the bed.

You can’t really go close to an asparagus bed when you are so close to harvest time. I have a few mad rogue spears that will come up at the end of March. But most will appear mid April.

You will be pleased to know I didn’t stagger far to remove the mulch. I just dumped it (rather inelegantly) on the future cabbage patch on the other side of the current and still going kale and purple sprouting brocolli.

I was so looking forward to walking the High Line in New York. But the latest forecast is for heavy snow and all sorts of dramas. So please forgive the week’s hiatus from the blog.

If I’m lucky I’ll post you holiday snaps. Otherwise I will just have to hope you come back.