One of the last things I remove from the garden in Fall are asparagus leaves. They look more like ferns but that would be to confuse them with their ornamental relative. They tower over the neighboring rhubarb and strawberry plants in one of my many perennial beds. This morning in the early sun, they glisten while holding water drops from an early morning rain. Standing nearly 8 feet tall, these lacy, yellow-green sentinels persist long after all the seasonal asparagus has been harvested. I could wait till Spring to cut them, as I do for the golden rod, joe-pye weed, coneflower and other seeded plants that feed the resident over-wintering birds. But I don’t, because come Spring I like to have a clear view of the first spear that breaks the surface of the soil, signalling warmer days and abundant harvests ahead.
