Ahh, asparagus. Ok, so the above picture isn't mine. But it's what I'm shooting for!There are two things I really enjoy: gardening and researching gardening. So in my ongoing search for the perfect garden vegetable, I came across the asparagus. I never gave it too much consideration before now for two reasons:
- You don't usually see this plant for sale in the run of the mill garden shops.
- Asparagus really aren't my favorite vegetable. They're good, just not my favorite.
So what makes this vegetable so great?
- It's one of the few perennial vegetables. Some people claim 25 years production from a single plant. Each foot long section of row can allegedly produce 1 pound of veggie matter per growing season. It only takes a little while to figure out how much work it is to "Grow Your Own" and asparagus takes a little work out of it.
- Although you have to wait a while for that initial crop, the plants are ornamental in addition to edible. They are beautiful feathery fern like plants for much of the summer and fall. Most folks cut the stalks back after the first freeze. Supposed to help with disease or something.
- Once the asparagus beds are established, they form a tight knit root network that helps prevent weeds from surfacing.
- The plants are among the most drought tolerant of vegetables. They want their roots to be cool though, so you have to bury them deep. They don't like to sit in water either, so you have to make the soil sandy / loamy.
VARIETY:
At the local super garden center in Birmingham, the only variety around was a male/female mix of Martha Washington crowns. Crowns are root bundles (no leaves) that are 1 - 2 years old. We bought a 6-pack for $3.98. Actually we bought 4 6-packs. I just couldn't stop myself. We were in danger of not having room for all the plants. The male/female mixed variety will have the added benefit (or down-side depending on how you look at it) of growing red berries that will drop to grow new asparagus plants. The energy spent growing these little red berries allegedly reduces crop yield a bit over the competition which is an all male hybrid called Jersey Giant or Jersey Night. It wasn't exactly competition for me though. All they had, at the store I went to, was Martha Washington, and I was ready to plant me some asparagus. You can also start asparagus as seed, but that requires a little bit more attention and effort. I personally, just don't have room in my tiny house for any more starter peat moss pellet pallets.
Occasionally you'll see a more expensive white asparagus at the grocery store. White and Green asparagus are actually the same variety, but white takes a little more effort to grow. You can force asparagus white by not allowing the stalks to receive sunlight. This is achieved by creating mounds of dirt around the emerging stalks.
PLANTING:
Now that I was home with my bundles of crowns, I had to get these suckers into the ground. I immediately tore open the bag, just to see what they all looked like only to realize, I probably should have h
ad my ground dug up and ready for all these plants, especially with them now lying in the open sun, baking. I quickly stuffed them back in the bag and hid them under a piece of paper to get them out of direct sunlight. I started a trench about the width of a standard shovel and 12" deep (easier said than done). Next, I poured about 2" of peat moss in. Then I sprinkled it with a fertilizer and mixed it in with the peat. Then I took the asparagus plants and stuck them in the peat, and surrounded them. It was funny, because I remember reading that "crowns" were just roots but my little plants looked like a little root knot with a bunch of chopped off asparagus stalks growing up. I was so proud, planting these little guys bundle/knot thingy down ward and pointed-end upward. It suddenly dawned on me, that I really wasn't sure if those were "chopped off asparagus stalks." I darted inside, and googled images of asparagus crowns. Well the "chopped off asparagus stalks" were really "chopped off roots" so they needed to go down not up. I ran back outside and turned them all around. This time, I fanned them all out like an octopus with the "knot" pointed up instead. Usually roots are so tiny, these things were big. Not sure if all crown packs come like that or not.
Anyhow, all the plants are in the ground now (as of yesterday). Hopefully, they'll grow into something big and beautiful.
Ok, finally the asparagus popped up in several places. I had already written off ever buying rooted dried out plants again with any hopes fo them growing, but they are finally here.
ReplyDeleteStill pretty scrawny I gotta say, but about 90% of them sprouted.
Filled in the trenches finally, so they're all ground level now. They're very whispy (and scrawny).
Hard to imagine they'll be big enough to eat eventually. I have hope though.