This time of year is so exciting with speckles of green popping up everywhere and the sense of possibility everywhere you look.
At home the sweet peas, tomatoes and leeks in the outside greenhouse are looking good despite some slug or snail that is doing the rounds in there (I'm going to get it tonight armed with a torch and a heavy boot). In the house, the fragile celeriac seedlings have been transplanted into individual modules and the various squashes are coming through. Out on the allotment our carrot and parsnip seeds we sowed in February have finally made an appearance (it wasn’t too early after all) but it has to be said that they came up at the same time as the same seeds sown a month later. Also up are the peas, broadbeans, rocket, spinach, beetroot, radish, lettuce, coriander, sorrel and dill. The Anya potatoes we planted in early March popped their heads up a week ago but I had to promptly rake them over with soil as a frost was forecast that night.
But, the pièce de résistance has got to be the asparagus bed. What a sight! The spears look like something out of Dr Who as they push their purple heads up through the soil. We planted the crowns last year in trenches 15cm deep in two rows of five crowns. We let all the spears grow and then cut the foliage down in the autumn after it had turned yellow. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the cow manure we had put on the bed in the winter had formed a solid crust so I lifted it all off and replaced it with a bag of stable manure bought from the local garden centre that was much more crumbly in texture. I also sprinkled over some fish, blood and bone. Within a week the first spear was up (good timing I say, especially as one of the spears showed signs that it had been banging its head against ‘a brick wall’ and had decided to start growing back down into the ground - see photo).Anyway, the first spear was ready before any others had caught up and so it was ceremoniously cut and the honour given to Thomas to cook it. Mm. I’m sure it would have tasted good except that I couldn’t find it, chopped up as it was into tiny little pieces and tossed into a risotto! I think I’ll be in charge of cooking it from now on!
I have now reached a dilemma as I don’t know how many of the spears I am supposed to cut. I understand that the issue is to do with conserving the crowns’ energy and so ensuring a good harvest for next year: to cut only the thick spears, to cut only a few from each crown, to cut all of them but for only six weeks instead of eight... Help! I am reminded of my first pregnancy and reading every book I could get my hands on but every one seeming to give different advice on the whole business. I find that gardening can be the same. It can be exciting and full of anxiety at the same time. I blame the books – they never say the same thing. It is probably no coincidence therefore, that the book I’m currently reading is called ‘The Anxious Gardener’ by Rozsika Parker.
This crop of asparagus made it to the table 'whole' and were lovely with hollandaise sauce.
Joseph and Aaron count the asparagus spears.