At the end of the first week of October I returned to hike to a spot I had found in the spring, a damp meadow in the Lac du Bois sagebrush grasslands, just outside the park.     I had found a number of wild asparagus plants, and with this in mind, I hiked the route again.    I found three patches of wild asparagus, some tall and mature and some emerging.    The larger plants had multiple thick stems.    The smaller plants looked to be one or two years old.    All of the larger plants had red berries.    A few of the plants were turning yellow already.

From the previous year, I had collected asparagus berries, then dried them.    I planted them in rows in the garden in late fall and by late spring I had about a dozen plants.    I wanted to collect some more berries this fall.    To help out, I also picked a few of the berries and planted them near the other asparagus patches in low, damp spots.    I took one young plant as a transplant, making sure that I was planting seeds for 10 – 15 others.

A few photos from the asparagus hunts are shared here as a slideshow.    Click the link  for more information.
 

 

I carried a small shovel with me, and with it, I dug up a few invasive plants along the route.