Lettuce and asparagus in my garden?

We have not yet done our spring clean up in our organic veggie garden so weeds aplenty. I noticed for the first time our asparagus came up. We can not remember when we planted it. We were so amazed that we did not cut it in time and now the tips have gotten whispy and very tall. What do we do now? Also is it possible that lettuce comes back without replanting? I swear a have a few cluster groups of lettuce. My herbs-sage, chives, mint,oregano, cilantro and have come back. I wish basil would regrow-I use it the most in the summer.

We had a lettuce (or maybe argula, I can't remember) plant come back this year.
I've never had basil regrow.

Don't do anything with your asparagus now. Let it grow as it wants, all summer. It will die off in the fall. We leave it stand all winter, then cut it and burn it right over the bed in the early spring, before you see new shoots coming. I was always told the soot from burning/blackened ground will heat the soil faster and bring the new growth. It also keeps the seeds from the old ferns on the bed to sprout.

The rule of thumb I always heard was to grow it one full season before you harvest, and and never pick a stalk that's smaller than a pencil. A healthy bed will always have a few new ferns growing in it, and if you don't get it picked, it'll just put more energy into the root to make a healthier bed.

Hope this helps.

Tim

Regarding the lettuce, it's a cool-weather annual, so it doesn't "come back" per se. The most logical explanation is that it went to seed last year and re-seeded itself. Lots on annual plants do that if you don't dead-head them (meaning, removing the dead flower heads). My dill and chervil reseed themselves every year, whether I want them to or not!

sundevilpeg wrote:Regarding the lettuce, it's a cool-weather annual, so it doesn't "come back" per se. The most logical explanation is that it went to seed last year and re-seeded itself. Lots on annual plants do that if you don't dead-head them (meaning, removing the dead flower heads). My dill and chervil reseed themselves every year, whether I want them to or not!

Yeah, that has to be what it is. I've had some lettuce reseed itself this year, which is pretty unusual, but it happened. I regularly have problems with Dill and Coriander reseeding themselves all over the place.

I have a single carrot that survived the winter this year, it's gotten huge.

I have a single carrot that survived the winter this year, it's gotten huge.

The garlic and shallots that I put in last fall started to sprout in late October, and then never really died back, since it never got cold enough. So here we are, in late April, and the garlic is two feet tall, and starting to throw up scapes already. The shallots are not quite as tall, but are forming big clumps. Blimey.

(Also, my June-bearing strawberries have started to set fruit already. )