Listen to Thompson, the great English gardener: "If the ground has
been drained, trenched, or made good to the depth of THREE feet,
as directed for the kitchen-garden generally [!], that depth will
suffice for the growth of asparagus." We should think so; yet I am
fast reaching the conclusion that under most circumstances it
would in the end repay us to secure that depth of rich soil
throughout our gardens, not only for asparagus, but for everything
else. Few of the hasty, slipshod gardeners of America have any
idea of the results secured by extending root pasturage to the
depth of three feet instead of six or seven inches; soil thus
prepared would defy flood and drought, and everything planted
therein would attain almost perfection, asparagus included. But
who has not seen little gardens by the roadside in which all the
esculents seemed growing together much as they would be blended in
the pot thereafter? Yet from such patches, half snatched from
barrenness, many a hearty, wholesome dinner results. Let us have a
garden at once, then improve it indefinitely.
I will give in brief just what is essential to secure a good and
lasting asparagus bed. We can if we choose grow our own plants,
and thus be sure of good ones. The seed can be sown in late
October or EARLY spring on light, rich soil in rows eighteen
inches apart.
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