Asparagus

Imagine a vegetable you can grow that, once established, will provide you with deliciously tender spears that you can harvest and enjoy for ten to twenty years. Without replanting! The Greeks used the word asparagus to describe any shoots that were picked and eaten while young and tender. We have come to know asparagus as that vegetable that you can't afford at the grocery store! Not to worry because you can grow your own asparagus very easily. With a little upfront effort and some patience, you can laugh at the price of asparagus every time you walk by it in the produce section.

Asparagus is a perennial vegetable. It comes back year after year with minimal effort involved in keeping it healthy. But you have to have a space where it can grow undisturbed by other plantings. The 4-5 tall fern-like plants can make a beautiful backdrop to your regular vegetable garden. You will need to plant 18-24 inches apart in two rows that are 4-5 feet apart. A small planting would be at least ten plants taking up about 50 sq. ft. A larger planting would thirty plants at about 180 sq. ft. Your tastes and garden space will dictate how many you plant. Plant in full sun in soil that has good drainage. If water stands where you plant, the asparagus crowns will rot. You can plant from seed, but most people start with bare-root crowns that are already one to two years old. Each has it's own advantages.

A bed of male asparagus plants can produce up to 30% more spears than a mixed gender bed. By starting your own seeds, you can eliminate the female plants by careful observation of the flower heads. Male flowers will be longer and larger. You then weed out the female plants. One problem with this is that it takes a full season to determine the gender of the plants. So you grow them out in pots or in the ground and then have to transplant them to the final bed the following year. This delays the harvest by one year. More on that later. Buying one or two year old transplants is an easier and faster way to get started. You will find them as bare-root "crowns" that you take home and plant in a well-prepared bed. And the key here is the bed preparation.

You will not be able to dig up and till this bed as you do the rest of your garden. So you need to take the time and effort to build a good foundation that your plants can grow on for years. Measure and mark the total bed area. Spread at least 2-3 inches of compost over the entire area. Be sure to also add rock phosphate, greensand, and an organic fertilizer at the recommended rates. Till or spade the soil amendments into the soil at least 8 inches deep. After tilling, rake the area smooth and dig two trenches, 4-5 feet apart and eight inches deep by twelve inches wide. Place your crowns on small mounds that allow the tendril like roots to spread out on all sides. Cover them with two inches of a soil/compost/pinebark mix. Every 2-3 weeks cover with two more inches of this mix, being careful not to cover the foliage. Do this until your bed is slightly mounded. Keep the area weed-free and mulched around the new plants. Give them regular, deep watering, being careful not to over-water. Now for the patience part. If planted from seed you should not harvest for the first two years after planting in the final bed. That takes you into the third year before you should harvest any spears. With crowns, harvest minimally the first year. The second year brings you into the full harvest time. By allowing your plants to become established, they develop the strong, deep roots that will provide a better harvest in following years.