Asparagus is a long time
All of us gardeners have different size gardens to care for, just like I have pants too big for me but I wear them anyway when I garden. I accommodate just like I wear a jacket in the winter and a hat when it rains.
My garden space is big enough that I can designate spaces for perennials such as oregano, thyme and raspberries. Oregano spreads like laughter beyond its assigned location, and I accommodate by respectfully reclaiming garden bed space but ceding the edges of pathways. Not sure why I grow thyme – two kinds. This year lavender is coming to town, and years ago I knew where it would go when it got here, so in spring it moves in – two kinds.
Maybe as important to a gardener as any perennial is a healthy asparagus bed. Properly cared for, asparagus crowns might produce spears 15 years or more, but they stay where you put them the first time.
The best time to plant asparagus is five to ten years ago, and the next best time is soon. Some gardeners buy ready-to-plant asparagus crowns which are the network of roots gathered into the grow place in the middle. It sounds medieval but the crown sends up a stem which we call a spear.
Crowns need a couple years to settle in before the spears should be harvested. They grow into ferns four feet tall or more that gangle over into pathways, and this is a good thing. The ferns absorb energy from the sun and rain for the crowns, so keep the ferns till they dry in late autumn. Then trim rather than pull them.
If you plant crowns, you should not harvest spears until the second year, and harvest only spears bigger than a pencil. Plants started from seeds should not be harvested until the third year. Starting plants from seeds is straightforward. Spread seeds into a tray of potting mix and tend till they sprout. Plant the new sprouts fairly close together in a nursery, or temporary end of a bed the first year. The following spring, carefully relocate the crowns to the spot of ground that will be home for more than a decade.
Place them apart 12 inches into excellent soil. Asparagus might have been domesticated in the Fertile Crescent 5000 years ago, so, as gardeners, all we need to do is replicate those conditions: loose, well-drained soil packed with years of horsey and compost accompanied by moderate but regular watering and ideal weather.
Spears emerge mid-spring and produce for six weeks or so.
Legend has it asparagus and tomatoes are good companions. Tomato plants will shade out some weeds among the asparagus, the two have some beneficial chemical back-and-forth, plus they keep each other’s critters away. My concern would be tomato roots disturbing the crowns because the crowns don’t want anybody messing in their space. Cultivation, by which I mean scratching around in the soil to slow down weeds and such, is a focused, purposeful activity in the asparagus patch, and don’t do it during harvest season because crowns are busy.
In mid-spring, spears begin to emerge. They can grow two inches in a day and are too tough to eat after a point. Then, it is best to let them mature into ferns.
Sorry, but we must get biological. Some ferns are female, some are male. The ferns of female plants develop small red inedible seed pods during the summer. You can harvest them when they mature for starting new asparagus plants. Since this will be the 12th spring with my plants, I intend to save some seed pods and try to start new plants next year. Just so you know, female plants produce bigger spears, but males produce more of them. They’re all tasty.
A healthy asparagus bed will outlast fads, passwords, most athletic careers and at least two presidents, plus for two months in spring it’s a tasty way to get your daily dose of kaempferol. So, pull your pants up and plant some crowns.