One of the cherished dishes in my family that grandma made for me was creamed asparagus over toast. This time of year, after she would have found some asparagus at one of the roadside stands, she would tell me that she would make some for me.
I have loved asparagus since I was a kid. Asparagus was one of the vegetables I actually liked and had a special place on our table.
Recently, I opened a page on the internet and saw that someone was actually harvesting asparagus just south of us. This sparked some questions I had a few years ago about asparagus.
Should I remove the female plants from the bed? When should I stop picking? Is it a good thing to trim the asparagus plants back to reduce the mess?
Some of my family has lived in southern Ontario for a long time, where we lived among the many small truck farms in Essex County, Ontario. We would regularly see asparagus among the offerings at these roadside stands.
The black, rich, organic soil in Essex County indicates strong ability to raise about anything. In Essex County, my parents, grandparents, cousins, and I would go out walking along the road and see asparagus spears poking up in the ditches.
I remember coming in with a paper grocery bag full of spears many spring days to Grandma’s kitchen. We all had a great springtime tradition of looking for these asparagus spears talking and having fun in the ditches.
Growing asparagus is a shared journey in patience and reward. When growing asparagus from seed, it can take as much as three years to get your first edible crop from your work.
On the other end of that, you can have asparagus growing productively for up to 20 years.
This also means that this area in your garden can be nourishing your family for decades.
One option to seed is purchasing asparagus crowns at many locations that offer the best chance of growing asparagus. Planting asparagus takes a little extra effort to get in the ground.
In the past, I dug a little furrow a few inches deep, level with the top of the crown. The roots that you plant will have to be spread out as you bring the soil in around the asparagus over the small mound at the bottom of the furrow.
Roots should be flat as you cover them. These simple, collective actions set the stage for years of harvest and shared meals.
Asparagus come up as either male or female, meaning that they are dioecious. I’m not sure whether the female or male spears taste better.
Therefore, I would leave the question up to you. I do know that you don’t need one female to one male plant to be productive, which is how you would initially plant your beds. As the bed matures, you could thin out the females who produce the spindlier spears.
Males can be thicker more robust and more productive, because they don’t produce the seed. Just remember that beginning in the middle of August, continuing through September, is probably the best time to transplant any perennial, including asparagus.
From the middle of April to the middle of June my family would harvest asparagus.
Following this early part of the season we would let everything just grow. When I grew some in my old garden, it took two years before I cut anything out of my asparagus, and the spears were a sturdy four to five inches tall before I harvested them.
After mid-June, I would let them grow and not cut back or prune in any way. If you cut back the floppy bush-like tops of the plant, keep in mind that you are going to cut out the chance for the plants to produce the sugars they will need to survive until next year.
When you cut, tie, or otherwise remove a plant’s ability to store sugars, you are jeopardizing the plant’s future health.
My sister and I have had this debate for some time about whether to tie the tops of any plants such as asparagus or daffodils.
For me, the problem is that when a plant is green and producing, it eliminates the chance for the plant to produce sugars for its survival until next year and prepare for the next season’s bounty.
You will find that the extra time it takes to grow asparagus will be deliciously rewarding at the dinner table.
I hope you all have a pleasant stroll through your gardens this week. If you have any problems in your garden, please e-mail me at ericlarson546@yahoo.com.