I thought her devices for easing the job were interesting. I doubt that anyone would be that “in” to asparagus, but it once was her late husband’s parents’ farm and her retirement dream. Doesn’t sound too “retiring” to me, but I thought her set up was edifying. Since she doesn’t seem to be raising anything else for cash, at least her work is confined to a small segment of the year.
What is “country concertina” wire?
I have 2 blackberry bushes and 2 raspberry bushes and I have to figure out what to do with them, quick — something easy. Hoosiermama says that I cannot plant them closer together than 800 feet (yards?). I have plenty of space, but I need them under some kind of control. My husband gets irate about thorny canes. He’s not allowed near my roses. He hacked out all the wild roses that were here when we bought this place.
I couldn’t see ‘farming’ as retirement, myself. Gardening, definitely. Doing it for a living kind of defeats the ‘retirement’ out of it. I am happy she’s using the family farm land. There are probably people in that area that depend on a certain amount of that.
Country concertina wire. Hmmm. Go into the woods. Dig up (have hubby do this!) the blackberry canes with the biggest nastiest thorns on them you can find. Take home. Plant the perimeter of your property all the way around. Allow to ‘naturalize’ for about 5ft inside the fence line. Now, if someone is tenacious to climb over the fence they have a whole new set of problems... Namely being encased in ginormous brambles. Ouchie.
Benefit. Once a year we’ll get hundreds of gallons of blackberries. I think I’ll name this place ‘blackberry bend’.
I’m sorry about the wild roses. They are pretty and seem to tolerate a lot more elemental abuse than the store bought ones.
I don’t know about blackberries and raspberries. I kill raspberries for entertainment ;) (and expense! :) )