Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) is an early season perennial vegetable that pops out of Rosslyn’s still chilly soil sometime in May. Each year it is a harbinger of spring, arriving at just the right time to reassure us that the long Adirondack winter is retreating; that mud season is mostly past tense; and a happy, holistic gardening season is underway.
Rosslyn’s asparagus bed was one of the very first improvements I made when we purchased the property and began renovations. First located inside an old stone foundation located along the south side of the carriage barn, sunlight reflected off of the tan clapboard and warmed the soil allowing for extra early asparagus spears.
When I established the new vegetable gardens west of the carriage barn, I attempted to transplant the asparagus crowns. Too late in the season. Too cold a winter. Most died…
The following spring I added several dozen additional crowns to fill in the voids, and Rosslyn’s asparagus bed has returned more and more robust every spring since!
Nota bene: My earliest memories of asparagus are driving around back country roads in the Adirondacks with my father, surveying the sides of the road for wild asparagus. When we spied a clump my father would pull over and I would hop out to harvest the aromatic spears that to this day smell like springtime to me. (Check out Greg Kuzma’s “Asparagus Beside the Road”!)
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