Into the soil

[greenstorm]

Planted on the weekend:
Asparagus, 2 kinds
Gooseberry, Captivator seeds (set outside to stratify)
American Elderberry mix (set outside to stratify)
Many peppers: 2nd round praetermissum, saved doe hill & greek pepperoncini, early jalapeno, kalugaritsa, piment de bresse, sarit gat, shishito, chimayo, targu mures, aji delight, haskorea
A tiny first round of AJ White teff
A couple of tomatoes: crunchy tropical bicolour promiscuous, KARMA miracle saved

Today I'll add:
Amaryllia & cossack pineapple ground cherry/tomatillo
An indoor cucumber for fun
Maybe sorrel (3 varieties)
Sage
Thyme
Look into the weird nightshades (jaltomato, tzimbalo)
Onions (evergreen white, red beard bunching, ed's red shallot, shallot multiplier, Andy's green potato onion mix
Sweet cheriette, minsk early, taiga, KARMA purple multi, carbon, silvery fir tree, minsk early, and grocery store green for breeding?
Skirret
Hardy prickly pear, colorado and vineland
Daylily seeds

Comments

[greenstorm]

Oh, and dahlias

[yarrowkat]

do you plant your asparagus from crowns, or seed?

[greenstorm]

In this case I'm starting seed, which I understand is a three-year epic journey. My soil would be destroyed by digging deep and wide enough to plant enough crowns so I'll need to put the small plants in and let their roots make their way.

[yarrowkat]

i'm going to try starting asparagus from seed next. i've tried planting crowns three tiems and it just doesn't work. asparagus grows wild in spots out back (i have seriously considered just throwing more seed around in some of those areas to expand the patches) but it's hard to keep in view and therefore to harvest like that. but i know it will grow in this climate. i'm just not succeeding at pleasing it yet.

[greenstorm]

Oh no, I was going to recommend https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/white-hawk-asparagus?_pos=9&_sid=c685b5b47&_ss=r but they're sold out. It's one of the two varieties I just put in the ground.

I love hunting down wild asparagus. Hard to keep in view because it gets covered in weeds, or because it's out back where no one goes?

[yarrowkat]

it gets hidden by the taller fast-growing koschia, and it's in areas where we don't regularly walk so it takes specifically remembering to do it at the right season, yeah.

when i lived in Colorado, we used to drive down back roads hunting asparagus on the ditches. that was always fun.

i'll keep an eye on that one, sold out or no! i have seeds from a local friend to try this year as soon as i get the irrigation set up.

[greenstorm]

This is why I want a Very Large wheel of the year on my wall with names of planting and harvesting foods in each month. Well, it's one reason.

Amazing to think of anything being faster-growing than asparagus though, I always think of it as coming up through winter-flattened grass with nothing else doing much.

[yarrowkat]

that's a lovely idea, the wheel.

koscia is extremely vigorous stuff. it comes up all fuzzy and innocuous and then you turn around and it's taller than a person. fortunately, it's excellent livestock food.

[greenstorm]

The wheel and the farm map, basically two ways of keeping myself emplaced.

You've mentioned it before, I've never been in its presence.

It surprises me that the asparagus grows well out back and not in tended beds. Have you dug one in back up to see how its root system is shaped, compared to how you planted the crowns? I'm so curious. :)

[squirrelitude]

My dad is sending me a rooted pad from his prickle-less prickly pear this summer. (*Almost* prickle-free. There's the stray prickle, still gotta watch out.) Apparently the pads are an important component of Bahamian bush medicine. I'd only known them from the fruit!

[greenstorm]

Oh that sounds fun! They're definitely more indoor play than serious, up here, though there is a wild one that grows a little south of us where it gets, um, I think -30 at coldest? Pretty impressive plants, all around.