PLANTING AND GROWING ASPARAGUS

Self Sufficient Living

Another notch to our self sufficient life is the addition of two Asparagus beds, very easy and not complicated at all to grow, I don't know why I've had a irrational fear of growing asparagus, one of my top seasonal treats and as April, May is our lean self sufficient months with purple broccoli just blooming, leeks coming to the end, still an abundance of spinach, winter landcress and salads along with the last of the kale and stored goods it's a beautiful jewel in the crown to be provided with such a gorgeous vegetable.  

With some a good garden care and some self restraint for the first two or three years these beds should give us 20 years of asparagus throughout April and May annually, a wonderful extra vegetable supplement to our lives.

I have brought one year old organic crowns so that we could jumpstart the length of time to harvest, as a rule the asparagus crowns need three years to set up, if you harvest asparagus before this maturing age you lessen the annual yield, your asparagus spears will be skinny and the crown may not produce as long.  

It is so hard not to cut the beautiful thick gorgeous looking spears in year two!  But don't!  However as each crown produces multiple spears you can take one spear from each crown only once as a special treat giving you a few portions in year two, but don't be greedy, I know it's hard but waiting to year three means you are investing in high thick spears for future yields, with longevity you'll be glad of the effort to abstain.

Year One To Plant The Crowns 

I prepped my beds for over (October time) winter and dug in mushroom compost and allowed this to mulch down in to the soil beds.  Dig nice deep and wide trenches so that the roots of the crowns can spread out comfortably.

Generously space the crowns around 30cm apart, the fill the earth back in over the crowns.  I'm not so sure about the raised earthed up trenches that most people use to grow their asparagus, I have made my trenches deeper instead, this we will see if I'm wrong in year two 2018's growth!

Year Two 2018

So excited to see the first asparagus spear appear in early April, it's been a harsh wet winter here in the UK and very little sun so I was pleasantly surprised that our asparagus bed was up and running so quickly as soon as spring had arrived even if the sun and weather had not.

10 days after seeing the first 2" spear I was sitting enjoying a cup of tea in the garden chatting with the chickens when I suddenly spotted the asparagus bed and it made me leap of my seat, calling my husband to come and see the full outbursts of life!

So now the cook in me is thinking a special very first cook with theses precious jewels should be with our home churned butter, poached eggs from our ladies and dressed in a buttery hollandaise sauce with a fresh lemon drizzle from our friends lemon tree.

First Cooked Asparagus Food Photo Comming...

Growing The Asparagus On

Leave the asparagus to do its own thing, this is important, your plants should end up around 4-5ft tall and be all wispy like fennel tops, this is great, when October arrives the plant should look like it's dying back and the shafts will start to go yellow and brittle, at this point if you tug on the shafts the fern like growth should just pull out, that's all it takes annually to care for this majestic vegetable.

Roll On Year Three!