The Wild Asparagus Christmas Tree

Off in the field just outside our back door wild asparagus plants grow. I've cooked a few spears and somewhat enjoyed them. But the real enjoyment of having them as neighbors is watching them throughout the year. As autumn draws to a close, they turn a colorful canary yellow as shown in the 2nd photo.

Those wild asparagus plants endure all sorts of weather. The field where they live is wide open to all the elements so when the wind howls, they take a beating. Sometimes they end up flat on the ground. Sometimes they lose lots of their ferny. Sometimes in winter they get buried in snow. Or covered in ice and lose more of their ferny. Spring rainfalls can get treacherous. If the wind picks up, I hesitate to look over in that field, not wanting to see if they survived. So far, so good.

One morning a few weeks ago I looked out and discovered it had snowed overnight. A winter wonderland was in place, even on those wild asparagus plants. With my winter gear on and phone for photos in my hand, out I went. It was spectacular. As I walked about the asparagus plants, my boots crunching in the snow, I had a thought. 

Christmas was approaching and I had a few tree decorations leftover. 

I had put them back upstairs but looking at the snow-covered wild asparagus plants I thought it would be fun to decorate one. They'd earned the right to celebrate Christmas after surviving the wind, snowfalls, rainstorms, the hot sun beating down on them, predators, I went inside and told my son about my idea. He agreed. They needed to join in the spirit of the Holiday Season.

So, I ran upstairs, took hold of a few of those leftover decorations and went back outside and over to the field fresh with sparkling snow. I picked out one of the largest of the wild asparagus plants. It was taller than most of the others. It was also more by itself. The only problem was it was hard to hang ornaments on its ferny, thin little wisps of branches. If they didn't have a little bit of the branch sticking out, I couldn't hang an ornament. 

And then there were the rather large leaves the wind had blown about those asparagus' plants. Some of those leaves were blown right into the middle of the plant. Some were stuck to their ferny branches making it impossible to decorate. 

But none of that mattered.

While the wild asparagus Christmas tree looks a little lopsided, it never looked more like Christmas.

I am sure Santa was happy.