OLD-FASHIONED COMPANION PLANTING

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Horseradish is best if peeled, grated, and used fresh (a section of washed—but not peeled—horseradish root and a grater along with a cellar of coarse salt are traditional accompaniments for spit-roasted beef and Yorkshire pudding in our house). Or, mix gratings and their juice with salt and white vinegar and keep in the refrigerator.

If left in the soil for more than a season, the plants will expand aggressively and your garden will soon be choked with a solid block of woody and unusable horseradish that is so thickly matted and has roots down so deep that it is nigh impossible to grub out.

Practical choices are to: (1) Dig it all each fall and replant cuttings next spring or (2) Box it in with escape-proof edging. I do both—growing new cuttings each spring inside squares or rectangles of foot-wide scrap lumber buried in the ground so only the top inch or so protrudes. Inch thick pine lasts four years or so before it needs replacing. That green PT lumber that's pressure-treated against rot would last longer, but I don't want copper arsenate or whatever in the food garden. You could install roof shingles, flashing, or corrugated metal lawn edging around just so that the barrier sticks up above ground and extends six inches down.

A cross section of the asparagus trench during planting.

Planting horseradish is more than easy; stick a chunk of root in the soil and it will grow. However, in our rocky, shallow New England soil, any root vegetable can be hard to dig. And when you get it out, the root will be bifurcated or worse from snaking around rocks. I want juicy roots that are thick enough to have something left after their rough rinds are peeled away, and that are uniform in shape and easy to grate. So I pick out rocks and when compost, rotted manure, or augmented peat moss goes in to enrich the bed, I also pitch in enough sharp sand plot that the soil is loose to a foot depth. A square yard will grow about fifteen roots and produce a quart or two of gratings plenty enough for most families for a year.

Hard Work

I used to dig the deep bed by hand, but that was when my back had a few less miles on it.

Preparing The Bed

Asparagus is what's called a "deep, heavy feeder." Its roots are a foot long when you get them and will grow down another foot and more. To produce an abundant harvest of thick, juicy spears (in excess of those it needs to regenerate) each spring for a generation, they must have a good stockpile of plant food down where the roots are. Which means that the best planting bed is a deep trench filled with rich soil packed with organic matter that will attract earthworms and continue to decay and produce nutrients for years. I've been known to dig an asparagus bed by hand with a spade and garden fork, but that was when my back had a few less miles on it. A perennial edibles bed is one of the best reasons I know for (lacking a farm tractor with a backhoe or digging bucket on the front) investing in a big rear-tined rotary tiller. A good reason for keeping a horse too.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print