CHAPTER VII ASPARAGUS

Is one of the garden assets. Once established an asparagus bed is good for a lifetime, almost; certainly it is a permanent feature of the garden, showing little if any deterioration¹ if well cared for and kept free from weeds.

The starting of an asparagus bed is not the serious undertaking² it was a few years ago, as the deep planting then thought so necessary is seldom practised now; instead it is thought sufficient to open a furrow³—with the plough, if the planting is large, with the spade, if small—set the plants and fill enough earth to cover the crown of the plant, and, as growth starts, to gradually fill up the furrow until the ground is level. The ground should be of the best and heavily fertilised before planting, for asparagus is a gross81 feeder and an additional application of coarse ground bone in each hill is well worth while as it furnishes food for two or three years independently of such annual dressing⁴ as the bed may receive.

For garden culture where hand cultivation⁵ is to be practised, the plants may be set in hills two or three feet apart each way, leaving room to cultivate between each way for the first few years. Two year old roots are the best to use and in planting a little mound⁶ of earth should be made in each hill, the roots of the plant spread out around this so that the earth will fit in beneath, close to the under side of the crown, then the earth should be firmed about the roots, a handful of bone meal sprinkled over the soil and the remainder of the soil filled in. Asparagus beds may be set in spring or fall; good results follow either setting. The asparagus bed must be kept free of weeds and grass from the start as once allowed to become infested⁷ with foul⁸ seed and grass it is a very discouraging proposition. One of the worst weeds to combat is the young82 asparagus plants which come up every year from self-sown seed; to avoid this the tops should be cut, as soon as the berries are red, and burned. If the tops are burned on the bed the resulting ashes will be of benefit. It has been my observation for many years that the spots where the tops were burned always gave finer stalks than the rest of the bed; this suggests the application of wood ashes as a top dressing after the dressing of manure⁹, which should be applied¹⁰ every spring, has been worked into the soil. A heavy covering of barnyard manure may be applied in the fall and spaded under in the spring, or it may be applied in February; if this is not feasible it is an excellent plan to spade into the space between the hills any available manure—poultry, rabbit or sheep or stable manure that is well rotted. The space between the rows, or paths, should not be broken up when this is done as, if unbroken and hard, it is easier to keep the beds clean and an application of some good herbicide may even be used to keep down weeds here. When the bed has been thoroughly¹¹ spaded and83 enriched in this way in the early part of the season I have found the after care of the bed very much more successful than when all over culture was attempted.

The variety to plant is largely a matter of taste—some prefer the green, some the white grasses. Lately a preference is being shown for the green. These will always be preferred by those who like a tender asparagus. The white sorts—Bonvilete and Argenteuile—are unbelievably tough as they appear in the market though beautifully white and of mammoth¹² proportions that make them very attractive; possibly if cut, as the green grasses are, just below the level of the ground they would prove more edible¹³. All asparagus is tough below the ground, green as well as white, and, for this reason, should not be cut much lower than the surface.

Of the green grasses Conover's Colossal¹⁴ and Dreer's Eclipse are excellent sorts, and Columbian Mammoth White is a white variety that is good.

If one wishes young plants for setting one can84 obtain them very easily by cutting the tops of asparagus when the berries are nearly ripe and piling them in some convenient place where the ground is mellow¹⁵ and free from weeds and grass and leaving them undisturbed for a year; the seeds will germinate¹⁶ and produce a large quantity of thrifty¹⁷ young plants that later may be taken up and set where desired, and all without any care or labor¹⁸ further than the cutting of the tops.

One may begin cutting the asparagus when the bed is two years old, though small stalks will be produced at that age. Cutting at this age should not extend over a period of two weeks and in an established bed should be limited to four. All small stalks should be cut and not allowed to grow during the cutting period as they would exhaust the plant if allowed to grow, but when the cutting period is over they should, of course, be allowed to grow.

Salt was formerly¹⁹ considered essential to successful asparagus culture and certainly does no harm, but its chief value is in keeping down weeds and this can be quite as successfully done by85 hand cultivation; this is better than to form the habit of depending on some quick, laborless road to clean beds—in the annals of gardening "There ain't no such animule."

1 deterioration   

n.退化；恶化；变坏

参考例句：

• Mental and physical deterioration both occur naturally with age. 随着年龄的增长，心智和体力自然衰退。
• The car's bodywork was already showing signs of deterioration. 这辆车的车身已经显示出了劣化迹象。

2 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

3 furrow   

n.沟；垄沟；轨迹；车辙；皱纹

参考例句：

• The tractor has make deep furrow in the loose sand.拖拉机在松软的沙土上留下了深深的车辙。
• Mei did not weep.She only bit her lips,and the furrow in her brow deepened.梅埋下头，她咬了咬嘴唇皮，额上的皱纹显得更深了。

4 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

5 cultivation   

n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成

参考例句：

• The cultivation in good taste is our main objective.培养高雅情趣是我们的主要目标。
• The land is not fertile enough to repay cultivation.这块土地不够肥沃，不值得耕种。

6 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

7 infested   

adj.为患的，大批滋生的（常与with搭配）v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 )；遍布于

参考例句：

• The kitchen was infested with ants. 厨房里到处是蚂蚁。
• The apartments were infested with rats and roaches. 公寓里面到处都是老鼠和蟑螂。

8 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

9 manure   

n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥

参考例句：

• The farmers were distributing manure over the field.农民们正在田间施肥。
• The farmers used manure to keep up the fertility of their land.农夫们用粪保持其土质的肥沃。

10 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

11 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

12 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

13 edible   

n.食品，食物；adj.可食用的

参考例句：

• Edible wild herbs kept us from dying of starvation.我们靠着野菜才没被饿死。
• This kind of mushroom is edible,but that kind is not.这种蘑菇吃得，那种吃不得。

14 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

15 mellow   

adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟

参考例句：

• These apples are mellow at this time of year.每年这时节，苹果就熟透了。
• The colours become mellow as the sun went down.当太阳落山时，色彩变得柔和了。

16 germinate   

v.发芽；发生；发展

参考例句：

• Seeds will not germinate without water.没有水，种子是不会发芽的。
• Can thin and hollow seeds germinate?瘦瘪的种子能够发芽吗？

17 thrifty   

adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的

参考例句：

• Except for smoking and drinking,he is a thrifty man.除了抽烟、喝酒，他是个生活节俭的人。
• She was a thrifty woman and managed to put aside some money every month.她是个很会持家的妇女，每月都设法存些钱。

18 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

19 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。