In the last house I lived was located, as they said, “in the dead centre of town”. Over the road from my place was an old cemetery. In summer many of the old graves were quite beautiful; reason being, some lovely ferns grew alongside the graves. The pretty ferns were in fact, asparagus plants. Were they planted by relatives of the dead to look beautiful or were they just wild? Did they seed from the popular floral arrangements of the day? It’s not unusual to find asparagus plants in old cemeteries. I eventually learned to look out in spring, after the first rain. If I was quick, and beat other visitors, I could pick some amazing asparagus spears, tender, succulent and tasty. There’s something special about asparagus, picked fresh and taken straight away to the kitchen.

After moving to my present location, imagine my surprise and delight when I noticed clumps of those unmistakable ferny plants scattered randomly along the waterway in front of my house. In winter they grow with little red berries and then dry up and wait for the rain.

From past experience I have learned to cut back the plants to the ground. So I attacked this little clump. As the asparagus shoots poke, up the trick is to cut them as close to the ground as possible. They seem to like this treatment and continue to produce more and more. Bring on the rain.