Chocolate Asparagus

The asparagus bed is 16 years old now. A few of the original plants have died, but it still produces more than Mike can eat. (I don't eat it, but I'll grow, cook, and freeze it for Mike.)

We didn't really prepare the bed properly when we started, just turned the grass under with the tiller, so of course we've been fighting the weeds ever since. One of the mulches I really like is cocoa bean shells. They sell it in bags, and I bought the last 4 from the garden center yesterday. These bags were torn and leaking, and the shells were starting to clump together, so I got them for half price. Tonight I spread them in the asparagus patch, and the smell of chocolate is everywhere. They degrade very slowly, and are small enough to form a nice barrier around the stems, but don't prevent new spears from poking through.

They also last for years, so we'll be picking chocolate asparagus next spring.

Other news from the yard: I finally picked the first tomatoes of the season - two little yellow grape tomatoes. It's been a slow year.