The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots | Page 7

duty. The
limitation of the beds to a width of three feet, therefore, is of
consequence, because it facilitates weeding without putting a foot on
them. The other point arises out of the necessity of affording support to
the frail plant in places where it may happen to be exposed to wind.
When Asparagus in high summer is rudely shaken, the stems snap off
at the base, and the roots lose the service of the top-growth in maturing
buds for the next season. To prevent this injury is easy enough, but the
precautions must be adopted in good time. A free use of light, feathery
stakes, such as are employed for the support of Peas, thrust in firmly all
over the bed, will insure all needful support when gales are blowing. In
the absence of pea-sticks, stout stakes, placed at suitable distances and
connected with lengths of thick tarred twine, will answer equally well.
In sheltered gardens the protection of the young growth with litter, and
of the mature growth with stakes, need not be resorted to, but in
exposed situations these precautions should not be neglected.
==Manuring Permanent Beds.==--The management of Asparagus
includes a careful clean-up of the beds in autumn. The plants should

not be cut down until they change colour; then all the top-growth may
be cleared away and the surface raked clean. Give the beds a liberal
dressing of half-decayed manure, and carefully touch up the sides to
make them neat and tidy. It is usual at the same time to dig and manure
the alleys, but this practice we object to =in toto=, because it tends
directly to the production of lean sticks where fat ones are possible; for
the roots run freely in the alleys, and to dig is to destroy them. In the
spring clear the beds of the autumn dressing by raking any remnant of
manure into the alleys, and the beds and the alleys should then be
carefully pricked over with a fork two or three inches deep only, and
with great care not to wound any roots.
The application of salt requires judgment. For a time it renders the bed
cold, and when followed by snow the two combine to make a freezing
mixture which arrests the growth of established plants. On a newly
made bed salt is unnecessary, and may prove destructive to the roots.
The proper time for applying salt must be determined by the district
and the character of the season; but in no case should the mineral be
used until active growth has commenced, although it is not needful to
wait until the growth is visible above the surface. In the southern
counties a suitable opportunity may generally be found from the
beginning to the middle of April. Second and third dressings may
follow at intervals of three weeks, which not only stimulate the roots
but keep down weeds.
==Planting Roots.==--In many gardens where there is space for two or
three beds only there will be the very natural desire to secure
Asparagus in a shorter time than is possible from seed, and we
therefore proceed to indicate the best method of planting roots.
Asparagus roots do not take kindly to removal, especially old and
established plants. The mere drying of the roots by exposure to the
atmosphere is distinctly injurious to them. They will travel safely a
long distance when well packed, but the critical time is between the
unpacking and getting them safely into their final home. Everything
should be made ready for the transfer before the package is opened, and
the actual task of planting should be accomplished in the shortest time
possible.

A three-feet bed should be prepared by taking out the soil in such a
manner as to leave two ridges for the roots. The space between ridges
to be eighteen inches, and the tops of the ridges to be so far below the
level of the bed that when the soil is returned, and the bed made to its
normal level, the crowns will be about five inches beneath the surface.
This may be understood from the following illustration of a section cut
across the bed.
[Illustration]
A, A represent the alleys between the beds, and B the top of one bed.
The dotted lines show the ridges on which the roots are to rest at C, C.
When the bed is ready, open the package and place the Asparagus on
the ridges at fifteen or eighteen inches apart, allowing about half the
roots of each plant to fall down on either side of the ridge. As a rule it
will be wise to have two pairs of hands engaged in the task. The soil
should be filled in expeditiously, and a finishing touch be given to the
bed. Very rarely will