From tarp to asparagus

How is this grass still here?  September 2025

We had a nice autumn day on Sunday--equinox I think?--and so the whole family went to the allotment to plant out the asparagus at last.  I grew them from seed in the spring and they have been waiting patiently in their pots until now.  

First we pulled out the cherry tomatoes from their planters at the top of the allotment:  all the remaining (mostly green) fruits came home with us to make fermented green salsa.  Then we moved the planters back down to the bottom of the allotment where they will stay until spring, possibly planted with overwintering onions (haven't decided yet).  

Then it was time to pull up the tarp and carpets where the planters had been, revealing a lot of worms and surprisingly a strip of green grass.  The daughter "rescued" all the worms while I dug out the grass;  the husband helped me prepare three rows and plant out while the son pulled out bramble vines at the back of us (not shown).  

I mulched with some wood chips (from a pile near the stables on site) and the son helped me pull the carpets back, to keep the weeds/grass from resprouting.  We moved the tarp onto the path at the side (again, not shown) and weighted it down with bricks.  The path is between us and our allotment neighbor and we generally keep it covered with pieces of carpet to keep the grass from growing--however, sometimes I need that carpet elsewhere.  I don't have enough pieces for both the path and the beds, and it's handy to cover really grassy beds with carpet over winter.  However, I'll be sheet mulching in places too, having collected some large boxes from my work in the summer.

There are still a few jobs to do as we wind down towards winter:  harvesting and clearing away the last of the in-ground tomatoes and squashes, planting out the garlic, and moving the artichokes to the very back of the allotment.  The asparagus are close to the back, but there is a disused space between them and the boundary fence, full of pieces of wood/pallets/wire/other allotment detritus.  It's mainly growing brambles and nettles, but I think it would be much better to grow artichokes. 

A family affair:  asparagus finally planted, September 2025