Monday, August 26, 2013

asparagus and terminal spears

more asparagus "berries" are beginning to ripen and it looks like a bumper crop of seeds if there are any readers nearby who are seed savers...it would seem that a couple of the plants have devoted all the reproductive energy they care to to this season and they have begun to throw up late summer spears...nothing unusual in this in my experience...it has happened every season so far for, at least, a few plants...the one in the second photo has flown solo all season and now it has decided a companion is in order...the one in the third photo is from a plant that has produced a cluster of seven spears already...it is on the southwest corner of the garden and has always been the happiest of the asparagi being the most productive plant all season...the eastern gamagrass has dropped its terminal spears low to the ground and extended outward at almost their full height to drop the shattered seed heads as far from the established clumps as possible...a slow way to move but effective...and if the grounds crew didn't mow regularly the forage grass would eventually ( a matter of many years ) colonize the area around hawthorn hall as far as it could...and since it is native to lake county my best guess is it would be relentless...the bottom photo is of an extravagant lamb's quarters plant growing up through an aspparagus plant...another native, it is edible but commonly classified as a weed...but it attracts beneficial insects that help control flea beetle and cabbage loopers that infest cauliflower http://www.agroecology.org/Case%20Studies/weedborers.html so we may have to rethink "weed" and do some serious research into what native, non-food plants may provide a habitat for helpful insects and critters ( there are always toads around my jerusalem artichokes for instance...it's damp and shady down under there and they are nectaries for all sorts of insects...some of which i am sure the toads feed on...dragon flies collect there as well so the mosquito populations are controlled...so much to learn ) and be reprieved from the onus of being just a "weed"

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