Picture taken 9-3-09.
FAMILY: Liliaceae
GENUS: Asparagus
Are you kidding me? Asparagus is in the Lily family? This is the first year I have raised Asparagus in my garden. Since it is one of my favorite vegetables, I thought I would try it. I ordered 12 Jersey Knight and 12 Purple Passion crowns from Heirloom Acres and planted them as soon as they arrived. Well, I had another new experience while I was planting them… I thought I was seeing things at first, but the ground looked like it was moving… NO, I hadn’t been drinking! Then I realized it was ants. Now, I have heard about fire ants before, and there were several hills in the back and front yard here but I hadn’t fully experienced the reason they call them fire ants… Well, even though I built this bed for the Asparagus, the ants let me know pretty quick who’s territory it really was! Well, I wasn’t going to let “little tiny” ants get the best of me… I was determined to finish planting the Asparagus no matter what!!! I had evenly spaced trenches already dug so I could perfectly space the crowns… Neatly and evenly. Well, I think I only had four planted by the time my hands were covered with ants… 20 more to go! For crying out loud!!! I was planting crowns, wiping off my hands, realizing why they are called fire ants! I was moving as fast as I could, but they just coming! There must have been MILLIONS! They followed me all the way down the bed and never let up one bit. Needless to say, my plans of a neat and orderly Asparagus bed wasn’t accomplished. It looks like I planted it blind folded.
Besides the silly (but true) story you just read, I was going to write this elaborate history of the Asparagus. I was going to write about its culinary uses, medicinal uses, and so on. I had two pages of hand written notes and thought ” GEEZ I must be nuts!”
I have a lot of work to do with this blog, and I promise I will add a much better description and history later. But until then, just click on this link to the Wikipedia’s description of the great vegetable, Asparagus!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asparagus
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