I am an avid gardener, and we have started to make our yearly changes and clean up. We have about nine raised beds; three of them are full of asparagus and two have strawberries in them. They are there from year to year. I have a new additive to the raised beds this year, I started some rhubarb last year and it came back. I planted five plants and we have five plants up and growing very well. I have not had much luck or been blessed with a good crop of rhubarb in all my years of gardening, but have tried to grow it several times and lost all of it every time I have raised it in the past. Maybe this will be the success story that I have been waiting for.
I ate my first piece of asparagus on March 20, 2011 and have a few more stalks coming up, so will have more to eat before end of week. We love the stuff and we sometimes eat it immediately or freeze it, and we will also try to can some of it this year. We have two of the raised beds covered with a plastic cover that lifts up and have had spinach in one of them all winter and have added to it in February. The crop is doing very well. I have also started some broccoli and romaine lettuce in the other covered bed and it will be ready to transplant soon. I have some pictures of it on face book and will try to post some here too. I am going to start some green houses this fall and use some of the excess heat for heating my home and maybe some water. I will also use some of my dump load to heat as needed some of the raised beds and green house. I will keep a log and some pictures up on the site as I build it and keep you informed as to the progress and the system I use to do the heat and energy transfer for the green house and raised beds.
