There’s no such thing as too much asparagus.

It’s the time of year when my head is buzzing with ideas for next year’s veggie patch. The crop on my mind today is asparagus. It’s been growing for two years in a bed at the front edge of two half-barrels.  My theory is this:  if it’s spreading outward in front of the barrels, it must also be spreading in the other direction under the barrels, but it can’t sprout there because the barrels are in the way. If I move the barrels, I should have twice the asparagus crop, right? Doubling the asparagus bed would take up a large space in my little garden so I need to interplant it with other crops that won’t interfere. I’m thinking leaf lettuce and small radishes. Besides being annual crops, they don’t have spreading or deep imposing roots so they should do fine. This is also a shady corner and none of these crops will mind a little shade.

It’s said that asparagus should be kept weed free to avoid crowding or stunting it’s growth, but when I was a kid I lived in a place where asparagus grew wild in a big open field. It produced just fine among the weeds and grasses with a bounty that feds all of the lucky locals who harvested it. It’s this asparagus memory that makes me believe sowing lettuce and radishes among it won’t stunt my asparagus at all. I guess we’ll find out.