OLD-FASHIONED COMPANION PLANTING

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If I ever do see the beetles threatening severe damage, rather than lose the planting I would compromise my organic principles and apply a USDA-approved, short-lived chemical insecticide advertised as effective against hard-bodied insects. Since the rhubarb and asparagus crops are already in and the new horseradish won't be dug till fall, I wouldn't worry about getting poison on anything edible.

If the leaves on your strawberry plants turn red well before frost, and/or if the berry plants pull out of the soil too easily and roots look wet, dead, or puny, and/or production falls off precipitously, you have a rust or rot problem. The only cure is to overhaul the bed. To be honest, relocating it to fresh soil for several years is best. Otherwise, after hard frost, uproot all the strawberry plants and burn them in a fire along with all old mulch and leaves. Plant the bed to a "green manure" crop such as winter wheat and till it in before the asparagus gets started in early spring.

Now, on the bare ground, let nature take its course and kill out the strawberry diseases by letting it go semifallow for a season. I grub out all burdock, grasses, and other persistent weeds, till shallowly between the asparagus several times during the year (before any weeds can go to seed), and finally burn the plot off in the fall. Burn again in spring just before tilling in fresh compost and lime and replanting a new lot of strawberry plants. I'm sure to purchase an especially disease-resistant strain from a different company than where I got the diseased stock.

Fall Care

After the tall greenery turns brown in the fall, pull mulch away from the borders and, if you've not edged the entire bed, dig out sod where it has encroached at the sides. Spread compost or rotted manure and till or hand cultivate shallowly.

Asparagus fronds are tough and don't rototill in very well. Also, they can harbor bug eggs that will happily overwinter, tilled into the ground or not. I like to go down the rows and, using an old (but sharp) hook-bladed linoleum-cutting knife, grub out all the old fronds as far below ground as I can cut. I toss them at the base of a fresh compost pile along with any corn stalks and tough broccoli and sunflower stems still left in the garden. Or, I save them to be burned, and the ashes scattered back on the land. (If stacked up off the soil beside the outdoor fireplace where I boil off maple sap, these woody stems dry out under the snow and make great sugaring off fire kindling.)

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