ROOTS

John brought me a little present the other day, in a grubby brown paper bag. Somehow he must have read my mind, for without even knowing it, he hit upon the most meaningful thing he could have presented me with... the one which I had already determined would be the very first thing to be planted in our new little garden... asparagus crowns!

Planting asparagus is no casual fling. It's not like tossing out a few seeds then forgetting about them. Entering a relationship with asparagus has meaning. It has heft. It implies that you're planning to stick around for a while... put down some roots. I've only done it once before, and I have to tell you, it ended badly.

I planted some at our Dallas home, in a big whiskey barrel planter, right after my husband told me we'd probably live there until he retired. Then I nursed them tenderly for more than two years - the allotted time you are supposed to wait before harvesting any spears. We'd had maybe one or two meals off of them when hubs came home and said "Guess what? We're moving to Houston!"

Within a few weeks the house had been sold, the kids and I had moved into temporary digs to finish out the school year, and John was on his way south. My only consolation, in leaving that garden behind, was knowing how much pleasure it would surely give the new owners. Sooo... imagine my distress, upon driving past the house one last time to bid it adieu, only to find my asparagus planter sitting out by the curb with the garbage, waiting to be hauled off to the dump!

But not this time sucker. No-siree-bob! This time we're seein' it through to the end, so help me God! Guess I'd better get cracking, then. Gotta get this weed barrier down... get some compost hauled in. These babies need to go in the ground!

P.S. Many thanks to gardenharvestsupply.com for the above image.