The last three springs I've bought Asparagus crowns from Walmart. The first time, none grew. Last year two of twelve grew, but died during winter. This year it looks like one will grow. When will I learn not to buy from Walmart? It must dry out in the packages.

Twenty five years ago I ordered Asparagus from a mail order company, and they all grew. I've been harvesting plenty of Martha Washington every year, but I wanted to try some purple. Maybe it's not too late to order some and plant this year. Maybe I'll order some white too.

Seeds from the Martha Washington blow around and germinate. Asparagus can usually grow like weeds once they get established. The purple are supposed to turn green when cooked. I'm getting hungry thinking about it.

--
:-)
Don't let the Zombies get you!!!!

My God is better than your god!!!!

Lord Bergamot wrote:

The last three springs I've bought Asparagus crowns from Walmart. The first time, none grew. Last year two of twelve grew, but died during winter. This year it looks like one will grow. When will I learn not to buy from Walmart? It must dry out in the packages.

Twenty five years ago I ordered Asparagus from a mail order company, and they all grew. I've been harvesting plenty of Martha Washington every year, but I wanted to try some purple. Maybe it's not too late to order some and plant this year. Maybe I'll order some white too.

Seeds from the Martha Washington blow around and germinate. Asparagus can usually grow like weeds once they get established. The purple are supposed to turn green when cooked. I'm getting hungry thinking about it.

you don't have any reliable garden places or greenhouses
around?


songbird

songbird wrote:
Lord Bergamot wrote:

The last three springs I've bought Asparagus crowns from Walmart.
The first time, none grew. Last year two of twelve grew, but died
during winter. This year it looks like one will grow. When will I
learn not to buy from Walmart? It must dry out in the packages.

Twenty five years ago I ordered Asparagus from a mail order company,
and they all grew. I've been harvesting plenty of Martha Washington
every year, but I wanted to try some purple. Maybe it's not too late
to order some and plant this year. Maybe I'll order some white too.

Seeds from the Martha Washington blow around and germinate.
Asparagus can usually grow like weeds once they get established. The
purple are supposed to turn green when cooked. I'm getting hungry
thinking about it.

you don't have any reliable garden places or greenhouses
around?


songbird

We do here , thankfully . After last year's debacle with Walmart seeds
(Rutgers and Beefsteak , allegedly that turned out to be mostly cherry toms
plus some mutts , the only thing I've bought there is cow manure . Add 3
separate times I got strawberry plants that didn't grow and flower seedlings
that were crap ... and after the latest batch of manure , I won't even buy
that .
My go-to place now is the nursery at a local grocery , they have a degreed
horticulturist on staff , and Melissa really knows her stuff .
--
Snag

"Lord Bergamot" wrote:

The last three springs I've bought Asparagus crowns from Walmart. The first time, none grew. Last year two of twelve grew, but died during winter.

Since you've already got asparagus, why not buy seeds and grow your own?
Lots of all-male types available, only takes an extra year (start in plug
flats earlynursery bed 6"X6" for a seasonpermanent bed. My Jersey Knight
crowns ALL transplanted well (I also bought a 25 roots of another type mail
order; they sent me 27; 24 grew and all survived an upstate NY winter in a
raised bed.

--
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

On 5/13/2015 7:25 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
songbird wrote:
Lord Bergamot wrote:

The last three springs I've bought Asparagus crowns from Walmart.
The first time, none grew. Last year two of twelve grew, but died
during winter. This year it looks like one will grow. When will I
learn not to buy from Walmart? It must dry out in the packages.

Twenty five years ago I ordered Asparagus from a mail order company,
and they all grew. I've been harvesting plenty of Martha Washington
every year, but I wanted to try some purple. Maybe it's not too late
to order some and plant this year. Maybe I'll order some white too.

Seeds from the Martha Washington blow around and germinate.
Asparagus can usually grow like weeds once they get established. The
purple are supposed to turn green when cooked. I'm getting hungry
thinking about it.

you don't have any reliable garden places or greenhouses
around?


songbird

We do here , thankfully . After last year's debacle with Walmart seeds
(Rutgers and Beefsteak , allegedly that turned out to be mostly cherry toms
plus some mutts , the only thing I've bought there is cow manure . Add 3
separate times I got strawberry plants that didn't grow and flower seedlings
that were crap ... and after the latest batch of manure , I won't even buy
that .
My go-to place now is the nursery at a local grocery , they have a degreed
horticulturist on staff , and Melissa really knows her stuff .

We do much the same, local Kroger Marketplace has an outdoor nursery
with Bonnie plants. Same with both the local Lowe's. Sometimes run into
a problem where some joker has switched the labels. Our favorite nursery
is just that, a humongous nursery about six or seven miles away. Have
bought most of the fruit trees, etc. from them as they guarantee their
stock.

We don't buy much of anything at Walmart, I would rather go to Big Lots
or Dollar General. I did buy a battery for wife's car at Walmart, took
it home put it on the charger, wouldn't charge, took it back the same
day for a refund and went to an auto supply joint.

We received almost three inches of rain overnight. I'm afraid to check
the zucchini patch, there may be a canoe hiding in there.

George Shirley wrote:

We received almost three inches of rain overnight. I'm afraid to check
the zucchini patch, there may be a canoe hiding in there.


It won't be a canoe until you hollow it out ... I haven't got any zuke
seeds to germinate yet , but won't really miss them if we don't get any this
year . We still have bags of shredded in the freezer from 2013 ...
--
Snag

On 5/13/2015 9:03 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

We received almost three inches of rain overnight. I'm afraid to check
the zucchini patch, there may be a canoe hiding in there.


It won't be a canoe until you hollow it out ... I haven't got any zuke
seeds to germinate yet , but won't really miss them if we don't get any this
year . We still have bags of shredded in the freezer from 2013 ...

I can feel your pain, took out a package of chard from the freezer last
night and it is dated 2010. Tasted okay so no problem. Found packages of
frozen chard, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower from 2011 to 2014. Did
rearrange them so the eldest packages are on top now.

Just noticed the fridge badly needs cleaning up and I need to rearrange
the side by side freezer there too. A house husbands job is never done.
I don't do ironing though. G

The last nine years before I retired in 2007 I was the house husband and
worked from my home office and wife went off to teach school every day.
I did my work stuff from 0700 to about 1000 and then became the
housekeeper, gardener, lawn boy, and whatever else needed doing.
Generally getting done by 1300 and then nap a bit, do some tech writing,
then start prepping for dinner.

Nowadays things have reversed a good bit due to my walking problems,
wife mows, I cook, she cleans, we both do laundry, we both garden, she
walking, me on the garden scooter. It works well for us.

The dawg went for her reeval on her surgery today and has been released
to run free. She's napping in my office recovering from the trauma of
the vet's clinic, where she shook like a leaf for a half hour. Her
universe is back.

George Shirley wrote:
....
We received almost three inches of rain overnight. I'm afraid to check
the zucchini patch, there may be a canoe hiding in there.

time to switch that space to a different crop?


songbird

On Wed, 13 May 2015 08:20:08 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

On 5/13/2015 7:25 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
songbird wrote:
Lord Bergamot wrote:

The last three springs I've bought Asparagus crowns from Walmart.
The first time, none grew. Last year two of twelve grew, but died
during winter. This year it looks like one will grow. When will I
learn not to buy from Walmart? It must dry out in the packages.

Twenty five years ago I ordered Asparagus from a mail order company,
and they all grew. I've been harvesting plenty of Martha Washington
every year, but I wanted to try some purple. Maybe it's not too late
to order some and plant this year. Maybe I'll order some white too.

Seeds from the Martha Washington blow around and germinate.
Asparagus can usually grow like weeds once they get established. The
purple are supposed to turn green when cooked. I'm getting hungry
thinking about it.

you don't have any reliable garden places or greenhouses
around?


songbird

We do here , thankfully . After last year's debacle with Walmart seeds
(Rutgers and Beefsteak , allegedly that turned out to be mostly cherry toms
plus some mutts , the only thing I've bought there is cow manure . Add 3
separate times I got strawberry plants that didn't grow and flower seedlings
that were crap ... and after the latest batch of manure , I won't even buy
that .
My go-to place now is the nursery at a local grocery , they have a degreed
horticulturist on staff , and Melissa really knows her stuff .

We do much the same, local Kroger Marketplace has an outdoor nursery
with Bonnie plants. Same with both the local Lowe's. Sometimes run into
a problem where some joker has switched the labels. Our favorite nursery
is just that, a humongous nursery about six or seven miles away. Have
bought most of the fruit trees, etc. from them as they guarantee their
stock.

We don't buy much of anything at Walmart, I would rather go to Big Lots
or Dollar General. I did buy a battery for wife's car at Walmart, took
it home put it on the charger, wouldn't charge, took it back the same
day for a refund and went to an auto supply joint.

We received almost three inches of rain overnight. I'm afraid to check
the zucchini patch, there may be a canoe hiding in there.

The only time I buy at Walmart is when we need something now and I
can't find it anywhere in our small town. I decided that I would not
buy groceries there when I looked at the label on a chuck roast and it
listed ingredients. I buy from locally owned businesses when I can.
That includes the farmers market.

Wish you could have sent us about and inch of that. It is getting
very dry here.

We picked some of our strawberries yesterday afternoon. Just baked a
cake (box) for shortcake. Strawberry ice cream also sounds good.
Rhubarb custard cake when the shortcake is gone. I already have about
28 cups of chopped rhubarb in the freezer. Need to get the pepper
plants into the ground soon.
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a

On 5/13/2015 12:21 PM, songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
...
We received almost three inches of rain overnight. I'm afraid to check
the zucchini patch, there may be a canoe hiding in there.

time to switch that space to a different crop?


songbird

I have suggested that to SWMBO but she's against it. I just picked three
cups of green beans to go with our dinner and found three more
zucchini's hiding under the leaves. One weighed nearly three lbs, the
others weren't obvious giants but were on their way to that stature.

Seems the green beans liked the rain too as do the cukes and sweet
chiles. Picked two nice cukes that were resting on the ground. Around
here if you don't get the low lying fruit the slugs will, I won this
time. Mosquitoes are terrible this afternoon, had to get the anti-itch
stuff out of the medicine cabinet I got bitten so many times. If we get
a couple of dry days the birds will start eating up the skeeters. We
have two types of swallows, purple and black martins, and what we call
bull jars, birds that eat insects at night and look a lot like a bat.
And we also have small bats here. Day time all the local birds eat
mosquitoes, even the seed eaters like skeeters. Thank goodness for all
of them.

We didn't get any tornadoes but a few small ones came within fifteen
miles of us, that's close enough for me.

On 5/13/2015 12:28 PM, The Cook wrote:
On Wed, 13 May 2015 08:20:08 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

On 5/13/2015 7:25 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
songbird wrote:
Lord Bergamot wrote:

The last three springs I've bought Asparagus crowns from Walmart.
The first time, none grew. Last year two of twelve grew, but died
during winter. This year it looks like one will grow. When will I
learn not to buy from Walmart? It must dry out in the packages.

Twenty five years ago I ordered Asparagus from a mail order company,
and they all grew. I've been harvesting plenty of Martha Washington
every year, but I wanted to try some purple. Maybe it's not too late
to order some and plant this year. Maybe I'll order some white too.

Seeds from the Martha Washington blow around and germinate.
Asparagus can usually grow like weeds once they get established. The
purple are supposed to turn green when cooked. I'm getting hungry
thinking about it.

you don't have any reliable garden places or greenhouses
around?


songbird

We do here , thankfully . After last year's debacle with Walmart seeds
(Rutgers and Beefsteak , allegedly that turned out to be mostly cherry toms
plus some mutts , the only thing I've bought there is cow manure . Add 3
separate times I got strawberry plants that didn't grow and flower seedlings
that were crap ... and after the latest batch of manure , I won't even buy
that .
My go-to place now is the nursery at a local grocery , they have a degreed
horticulturist on staff , and Melissa really knows her stuff .

We do much the same, local Kroger Marketplace has an outdoor nursery
with Bonnie plants. Same with both the local Lowe's. Sometimes run into
a problem where some joker has switched the labels. Our favorite nursery
is just that, a humongous nursery about six or seven miles away. Have
bought most of the fruit trees, etc. from them as they guarantee their
stock.

We don't buy much of anything at Walmart, I would rather go to Big Lots
or Dollar General. I did buy a battery for wife's car at Walmart, took
it home put it on the charger, wouldn't charge, took it back the same
day for a refund and went to an auto supply joint.

We received almost three inches of rain overnight. I'm afraid to check
the zucchini patch, there may be a canoe hiding in there.

The only time I buy at Walmart is when we need something now and I
can't find it anywhere in our small town. I decided that I would not
buy groceries there when I looked at the label on a chuck roast and it
listed ingredients. I buy from locally owned businesses when I can.
That includes the farmers market.

Wish you could have sent us about and inch of that. It is getting
very dry here.

We picked some of our strawberries yesterday afternoon. Just baked a
cake (box) for shortcake. Strawberry ice cream also sounds good.
Rhubarb custard cake when the shortcake is gone. I already have about
28 cups of chopped rhubarb in the freezer. Need to get the pepper
plants into the ground soon.

Some years ago I happened to be in a Walmart grocery and noticed the
label on beef, said "beef, and water." I never bought any of it but a
friend kept talking about the beautiful steaks at Wally World. She had
obviously never read the label so asked her to do so. She never bought
food there again. If there isn't a law against "plumping" the meat there
should be. Plus they always use the lowest priced provider.

I would gladly send you some water but I ran out of rubber envelopes. We
were thinking of putting catch barrels under our downspouts until it
started raining for days here. I guess the great Texas drought has moved
to California.

wrote:
Lord Bergamot wrote:
The last three springs I've bought Asparagus crowns from Walmart. The first time, none grew. Last year two of twelve grew, but died during winter. This year it looks like one will grow. When will I learn not to buy from Walmart? It must dry out in the packages.

Twenty five years ago I ordered Asparagus from a mail order company, and they all grew. I've been harvesting plenty of Martha Washington every year, but I wanted to try some purple. Maybe it's not too late to order some and plant this year. Maybe I'll order some white too.

Seeds from the Martha Washington blow around and germinate. Asparagus can usually grow like weeds once they get established. The purple are supposed to turn green when cooked. I'm getting hungry thinking about it.
you don't have any reliable garden places or greenhouses
around?
songbird

Nope, just Walmart, Kmart & Home Depot.
It seems like they all get supplied from the same place.

--
:-)
Don't let the Zombies get you!!!!

My God is better than your god!!!!

Gary wrote:
"Lord Bergamot" wrote:
The last three springs I've bought Asparagus crowns from Walmart. The first time, none grew. Last year two of twelve grew, but died during winter.
Since you've already got asparagus, why not buy seeds and grow your own?
Lots of all-male types available, only takes an extra year (start in plug
flats earlynursery bed 6"X6" for a seasonpermanent bed. My Jersey Knight
crowns ALL transplanted well (I also bought a 25 roots of another type mail
order; they sent me 27; 24 grew and all survived an upstate NY winter in a
raised bed.
--
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

I've grown Asparagus from seed from my plants, but have never seen seed advertised in seed magazines, at least as far as I can remember. I'll look tonight.

--
:-)
Don't let the Zombies get you!!!!

My God is better than your god!!!!

"Lord Bergamot" wrote:

I've grown Asparagus from seed from my plants, but have never seen seed advertised in seed magazines,

Don't know about magazine ads, but any good seed catalog will have
asparagus seed- the conventional wisdom is that the "all-male" hybrids are
a little more productive, and you don't have plants coming up in unwanted
places from dropped seeds.


--
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Gary wrote:
"Lord Bergamot" wrote:
I've grown Asparagus from seed from my plants, but have never seen seed advertised in seed magazines,
Don't know about magazine ads, but any good seed catalog will have
asparagus seed- the conventional wisdom is that the "all-male" hybrids are
a little more productive, and you don't have plants coming up in unwanted
places from dropped seeds.
--
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

So your saying I should be able to buy male seed?
--
:-)
Don't let the Zombies get you!!!!

My God is better than your god!!!!