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I want to share results of an interesting (and completely accidental) experiment in growing asparagus!

I read online that asparagus and tomato are good for each other – so I had planned to plant them side by side as companion plants in our new house – Connecticut zone 7. We had moved mid-winter of 2023-4, and unsurprisingly, I bit off waaay more than I could chew plant-wise in the spring – and I ended up having to prioritize getting our new fruit trees in the ground. So the asparagus crowns went in a few weeks too late, after soaking for longer than they were supposed to soak. They weren’t anything fancy – just the 3-crown bags from Ocean State Job Lot.

I planted two patches of asparagus – purple and green. The purple came up as less-than-toothpick-size spindly things, but there were absolutely no signs of life with the green. I thought I had killed it. I planted a tomato plant right on top of my patch of green, so the spot wouldn’t be empty. Then green asparagus came up beside the tomato, and I had a hot mess of plants growing together all year.

I LOVE hiking and foraging, and I’ve always noticed that in the wild plants grow practically on top of each other, and seem to be super healthy that way. So the #1 traditional gardener wisdom I’ve always doubted is recommended plant spacing. I tend to see it as a guideline for how close to plant the same type of plant to another – but then figure I can put random OTHER plants in between however I like, willy nilly, so that my garden more resembles what I see in nature.

Because of that, I just shrugged and didn’t try to remove the tomato from on top of the asparagus. And my “companion” tomatoes were much closer than recommended (less than a foot away from the last crown in the patch).

Fast forward to spring this year. I failed to clear the dead tomatoes from last year due to an busy fall season in my creative small business. And I failed to even rake the approximately 3-6″ of maple leaves covering my garden – but lo and behold, come April, there are some shockingly huge asparagus spears poking out of the leaves. I cleared the leaves out, and the largest and earliest spears are in the EXACT spot where I planted that tomato on top of my green asparagus last year.

My neighbor (who also planted asparagus last year, but was much more on the ball than me about getting it in on time) has not had a single spear large enough to eat this year. We’ve gotten a whole meal for a family of 4 (with two teenage boys) of which about 90% came from the oops-tomato-plant spot.

Haha I can’t figure out what actually happened. But I need to move my asparagus patch – as actually living in the house and seeing the sun/wind patterns and where the invasive exotics are strongest has made me completely rethink my plan for what grows where. So I’m going to put the asparagus crowns farther apart than I did last time, and mark in between the crowns with a stick, and interplant tomatoes right on top of about half of each color of them next spring, and see what happens the following year. I will report the results back here when I do!

TLDR: Growing asparagus and tomato literally right on top of each other seems to have resulted in shockingly healthy asparagus in an accidental experiment. Plan is to repeat the experiment on a larger scale to see what happens.

I’m wondering if anyone has any experience in this?

I see this as an interesting concept, that paired with solar or other renewables, could be very helpful for people in certain climates.

I see barley is commonly used, and am investigating other grains.

Super cool idea, which imo besides obviously the solar panels/renewable energy, the Barley seeds or similar are inputs that need to be purchased. I guess one could grow Barley but I’m not sure if that works out economically.

Mostly, I want to know if people have done this and any experiences or knowledge they may have.

Zone 5b New Hampshire.

I’m considering putting a few blueberry bushes on the south/southwest side of my property. It’s the hottest part of the yard, right at the end of my property where the sun beats off the blacktop road pavement most of the day . The area starts getting sun around 11 and it’s in full exposure until sundown…I know blueberries like full sun but will this be too much?

I have a quite flat, clay piece of land with full sun in New Zealand, 1080mm of annual rainfall.
There is a very slight slope on the 0.25 hectare section in question.
I would like to develop a seasonal pond, with hopes to slowly develop to a year round pond, using slightly off-contour small shallow swales to direct water slowly towards the pond.
As we are right now, we do not have enough catchment to provide sufficient rainwater to beat the evaporation (no overhanging trees).
This means we would likely have a pond during the wet months and a bit outside of them (due to the pond’s water storage) (mid-April – mid-November).
I would intend to successively plant overshading plants, aquatic plants and water holding plants nearby to reduce evaporation and lower temperature.

Would it be a safe assumption that over time I would be able to approach a constant pond, by decreasing runoff and holding water for longer due to higher organic matter counts and more shade?

Is this expectation accurate? Why or why not?

Community Garden

Hey folks! I just started working on a ~0.07-acre community garden plot that’s been neglected and has compacted clay soil. I’m treating this as a fixer-upper and a chance to learn, since I don’t have land of my own—so I’d love to experiment and grow my permaculture skills here.

After working in the rain, I noticed a lot of standing water. A neighbor mentioned that both of our plots sit at the bottom of a subtle slope and have had persistent drainage issues for years.

That got me thinking: How can I improve drainage and make the most of this natural water flow using permaculture methods like swales, trenches, or maybe even a small catchment pond at the lowest point?

Are there any low-cost, beginner-friendly DIY strategies to transform this compacted, poorly-draining clay plot into a mini permaculture paradise?

Where I’m standing for the picture of my plot is pretty close to the highest point, the lowest point is directly across in the back corner with ~1-3 degree slope.

Any insight or suggestions are welcome!

Hello!

My family has a 100 acre farm in Northern Appalachia. It was once a fully working farm with a gorgeous peach orchard but for the last 60 years has went back to forest with 4 or 5 small field exceptions family cut back mostly for deer hunting and so they have a place to drink beer with friends.

I plan to retire to this farm in 18 years or so. (There is a great build site at the top of the ridge.) Between then and now I am slowly improving the place – adding a good dug well with housing, putting in drainage by the access road, etc…. I am super interested in planting permaculture trees now so things are well established and producing when I retire – things like chestnut or oak that take a long time to grow. Mostly chestnut – we have wild oak and walnut naturally. The property is lots of hillside with several wet weather springs through-out and abundant wildlife. Little clearings are mowed with small tractor and brush hog currently to keep forest from overtaking them.

I have family who goes up twice a week and I can visit once a month to check on things, but whatever I plant has to be otherwise hardy. I am happy if wildlife eat the produce for now – I mostly won’t be there to collect.

Everything I find on permaculture assumes someone there harvesting. Am I not looking in the right place? Anyone have leads on where I can learn more or ideas on hardy pairings I can try? I have the luxury of time so willing to experiment a bit but the major disadvantage of living far away. Help!

There had previously been a loading dock that was basically a cribbed railroad tie wall in the shape of a “U” that retained enough soil behind it to create ramp/dock to pull up too. I removed the walls/ties and then removed the dirt to grade. I want to plant fruit trees, plum, peach, cherry in this area. Theoretically the surface area of the ties was small, only three of the ties were contacting the ground and the rest were stacked vertically on top of the bottom ones. I can avoid planing directly in the ground beneath where the ties previously laid, but the trees would be close to there.

What is the leeching potential of the ties over time in this scenario and do fruit trees takes up whatever toxins are in the soil?