Ep. 304 - Asparagus and Building Soil

Join Rob as he talks asparagus and soil building - using a recipe shared by Nick Ferguson as heard years ago in an expert council show from The Survival Podcast.  All links in show notes!  

Nick uses this technique when building new beds and for the next two consecutive years.

Nick Ferguson’s Soil Recipe

Layer in this order: ½” of compost or manure.  Preferably rabbit or goat manure.  If you don’t have any it’s okay.  This is just a bonus.

1. ¼” of any ground seed mill or ½” of rabbit pellets or layer pellets.  You should be able to get these at your local feed store.  This is worm food.
2. ⅛” bone meal
3. ⅛” dried molasses or 1 gallon liquid molasses per 100 to 200 square feet.  This is bacteria food.
4. Dusting of garden lime.
5. Dusting of phosphate.
6. Earth worms not red wigglers.
7. A sprinkling of local leaf mold.  This is the matter underneath the leaves in a wooded area.  Take carefully from several locations and then recover the earth with the leaves.  This will inoculate your soil with local bacteria.
8. Water it well.
9. Cover with 4” of wood chips or chopped leaves, 12” of whole leaves or 8” of straw.

Do you grow Asparagus?

How do you build soil?

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Discussion Links:

March 14, 2022

• Many other mentioned show links are contained in the above post!

Asparagus

Johnny's Selected Seeds

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: Rare Heirloom Seeds

Intro Song courtesy of Brother Jerry Tackett - Independent Order of Odd Fellows

Survival Podcast

Defunct Article:  Nick Ferguson’s Soil Recipe

4 Steps to Building Healthy Soil - Homegrown Liberty

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:18

Well, hello there, and good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, and welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser and I am your host. Today is Monday, March 14th, 2022. And on the menu for some of the topics for today's show are asparagus, better plant germination, and an owl mama update. We've also got some topics and some additional links that you can click on in the show notes that will give you some information on who was born this day, what happened today in history, questions of the day, and a puzzle of the day. And it doesn't feel like it this morning, guys. There's six days until spring begins. Daylight savings time is kind of stupid. It is darker than it usually is this morning. Although it is 7.07 a.m. as I record. The cock is crowing, the stream is flowing, the small birds twitter, the lake doth glitter. Writes William Wordsworth. And as a matter of fact, as I speak these words right now, I drive past the old asparagus beds. These crowns of asparagus here at York Meadow Farm were planted probably 12 years ago by dad. They are still producing after all of these years. And uh that is the title of one of the articles from the Old Farmer's Almanac, which will be linked to in the show notes. We've also got simple tips to germinate seeds more successfully. There's also an article on growing potatoes in a trash can. And an article on nesting season for owls. What else do we have here today? We've got how to find Sirius, the dog star, and a lot more. But you know what? Since that came to be, while I'm no asparagus expert, let's go ahead and learn a little bit more about asparagus today. We're gonna learn the name of it. Uh some things about planting, growing, and harvesting asparagus. So let's uh let's dive in, shall we? When I say the name, we've got asparagus aficionalis. That is the Latin name of the common asparagus plant. And guys, you may be thinking to yourself, well, I don't like asparagus. If you've never had fresh asparagus, that is likely why you do not like it. You've probably had this woody, pithy bitter roasted thing that turned into a floppy bit of nothing accompanying your steak, maybe your potato. Nothing worthwhile, nothing much, but fresh asparagus is a game changer, friends. So asparagus is one of the first plants that greets us in the springtime, it's a perennial, like I said. Dad's asparagus plants have been growing for about 12 years now, and they will keep going. So I'm not going to read the article word for word, but you can read about asparagus, where it grows, if it's suitable for you. But basically, if you're in an area like me, I grow in USDA zone 5B. It will grow in most temperate regions, but it can also handle longer winters than what we have here in northeast Ohio, so give it a shot. I have no recommended vendors at this time. Um I'm sure some people do in the past, historically, for seeds we have ordered through Johnny's, Baker Creek, and uh pretty much those two, um, especially Johnny's. I do not recall though where we got these asparagus crowns from. So, how long does it take to grow asparagus? Alright, you know, once you've got those crowns in the ground, it may take a couple of years for them to actually get started and get producing, so patience is needed. And they are saying in this article that asparagus can continue to be productive for decades, and like I said, uh we are in year 12 with these, so the the plants are awesome, they continue to produce for a few weeks in the spring, and then uh they you know we let them we let them flower. Um they just they they look awesome. So, when do you plant asparagus? You plant the crowns in the early spring as soon as the soil can be worked. So, for many gardeners, planting the same time as potatoes in the spring is a good rule of thumb. Asparagus is usually grown from one-year-old plants called crowns, but it can also be grown from seed. I don't know how you would do that and how long it would take, so I'd suggest finding some crowns, you know. Uh, or if you're feeling adventurous, go ahead and try it from seed. Um, there the article lists some details about uh seed versus crowns and some tips for starting from seed, but read check that out if you're interested. As far as a planting site is concerned, you know, you want to choose a site that gets full sun, you want to have the asparagus bed towards the edge of your garden where it will not be disturbed by the activities of planting and replanting other areas. You want to ensure that you've got good drainage and that the bed doesn't pool water. Here we've got a lot of clay soils, and when this bed was put in, we it was one of the very first things that we did here along with planting the blueberry bushes. And luckily that put it up on a it's not like a hill, but it's a crest of about something that would be comparable to a hill on our flat front little few acres, front little flagpole acreage. And um so it's not like it it it does drain well, but that clay soil just holds water. So if you've got heavy clay, just make sure that water can get out of there. So you want to eliminate all weeds from the planting site, digging it over, working in a two to four inch layer uh of compost, aged manure, or soil mix. I don't know how dad did this, but one method that I learned from Nick Ferguson via the survival podcast, which I have done and it works extremely well, is this kind of lasagna method of gardening laying down cardboard, throwing down dried molasses, blood meal, chicken feed, not copious amounts of it, right? But doing that and then spreading your wood chips and all of this and just letting it age and sit there, and what you're doing with the molasses and the chicken feed and the dried blood and some other things is you are feeding the soil organisms and the worms and the bacteria, and the result from that little garden bed where mom and I did that experiment probably six years ago is some of the best soil that you've ever seen in your life, and our tenant farmer Cody will vouch for this. That is the area where he grows his um. I don't know if he grows anything specific there or if he just rotates through there, but he has he has made mention several times about how impressive that soil is and how we were able to turn it around in such a short amount of time. So I will try to I have notes of this particular soil recipe, but I've tried to pull up the link several times in the past from where I originally found it, and I think that link is broken. So, at any rate, I will try to find that and include it in the show notes because it's a great reference to have at least some of the ratios, and uh you know, nothing specific, but you definitely don't want to overdo it. So you're not gonna need as much as you think with some of these things building up the soil. But uh whether you're planting asparagus or anything else, it is going to be beneficial. So I'll see if I can find that for you. As far as planting asparagus, you want to plant these crowns deeply in order to you know protect them from whatever cultivation is needed for weed control. So get them, get them down in there to keep it easy. Just dig a trench about 12-18 inches wide, six, eight inches deep, and uh space the trenches about three feet apart. That's about the spacing that we've got. They're maybe a little closer, maybe our asparagus rows are more like two feet, and you know that seemed to work for us. Uh do your own research, plant whatever works for you. But this article is suggesting that kind of spacing, and you know what? Like I said, I'm just glancing down, I'm not reading the damn thing, so check out the link in the show notes for more. But be patient with asparagus, give it time, and be sure to plant it at the right time and following the right protocols, otherwise, you know, there's an old saying that I learned from the Davy Tree Expert Company when I worked for them in a past life. The saying was do it right or not at all. And I subscribe to that sentiment, you know, um, to a certain extent, because that do it right or not at all mentality is a mentality that leads a lot of people to the complacency that is their life. Well, I can't do it right, I just won't do it, or they get it stuck into this analysis paralysis where they just don't do anything. You know, do something. Like, for example, I dropped that little uh that little um song in there this morning. If you if you'd like that, uh let me know. That's a that's a song from Brother Jerry Tackett. Uh he gave me the freedom to to use that in the show, and um I'll go ahead and close out with that before I get too close. So, you know, guys, yeah. Do things. Do the work, be consistent about it. Don't maintain the attitude of do it right or not at all. You know, maintain that attitude when you do the work, but don't use that mentality as an excuse to not. You're better than that. You deserve better than that. Be the leader you were born to be. Step it up. Just let's go. I mean, too many excuses have been made already. It's time to build the life and homestead of your dreams, my friends. So with that, here is the uh song in its entirety, which is going to become a better and bigger part of the show. I uh I appreciate tuning in today, guys. And as always, this is Rob Kaiser, and thank you.