It goes without saying that we love our garden. We love the trees, veggies, fruits and flowers. When we have to take put plants it grieves us. We have an orderly garden, but not a manicured one and it has been our habit when plants we enjoy harvesting from are doing well, we let them be.
The challenge comes when the encroachment of one variety into another requires us to - finally - take action.
Strawberries and asparagus companion very well together. But after the last couple years of dwindling asparagus harvest we finally had to address the alpine strawberries taking over the asparagus territory. Sigh.
The strawberries encompassed so much of what we call the upper garden we have been able to pick some fruit pretty much every month year-round with about 3 heavy harvesting periods a year. Sigh again.
So, Deane tackled digging out all the strawberry plants in the asparagus territory. I saved some for some friends and may bring a bag or two of clumps to the market it they are looking okay then.
The picture shows Deane about half-way through the digging part (dig, shake off dirt, toss in a pile), and the pile of plants which I added to one of our tree wells for composting in-place. I couldn't add these beloved plants to the dump trailer.
I picked up some replacement asparagus plants yesterday.
I know our remaining strawberry plants will continue to fruit and reproduce. I actually may thin a little to open up the remaining plants. Alpines do not produce a lot of runners, but do produce a lot of seed. We find seedlings in the most amusing places - middle of the lawn, middle of the berm (that one is a hardy one since it gets no direct water!), or tucked at the edge of a tree elsewhere.
And so it goes and grows in our garden.
Enjoy your garden too, and take time to think about what the plants need.
If you need help, I'm always happy to answer your email questions (or in person at the Mesa Farmers Market), or you can find printable help at my publisher's site.
-- Catherine, The Herb Lady
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