Asparagus me, domine

My asparagus crowns arrived today from Simpsons Seeds and Heather and I went straight down to the patch to plant them in the bed we had prepared earlier in the year.

The variety we are growing is Dariana, an F1 hybrid that has been bred in France to compete with the more popular varieties that have come out of The Netherlands.

According to the blurbs, Dariana is high yielding and will produce straight, high quality spears of superb flavour.

There is some suggestion that growing tomato plants alongside asparagus will help reduce the risk of asparagus beetle. The scent of the tomato plants, apparently, confusing the beetle's homing instinct !

We have been growing an interesting variety of tomato from seed : Galina . This variety has been bred in Siberia to produce a very hardy, golden-yellow cherry of fantastic flavour.

We have put four Galina plants that have been previously hardened-off alongside the asparagus bed, but under a cloche . We will also plant out some more without cloche protection when the risk of frost has passed and then compare the results.

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