Asparagus

Finally planted the last of my new asparagus crowns with Alec at the allotment yesterday. I now have 24 Gijnlim and 24 Stewart's Purple, so in three years time we'll be having asparagus every day! The old bed is still producing well and we have enjoyed some good meals, and so far there is no sign of the asparagus beetle which severely attacked the young plants last year.

For anyone who doesn't have an asparagus patch I strongly recommend you get one going. England has the best growing conditions for asparagus in the world, but wherever you buy it, from a farmers market to a Michelin starred restaurant, it's not going to taste as good as it does picked fresh from your plot. This is because the sugars in the asparagus rapidly turn to starch after picking, similar to sweetcorn and peas, so you should only cut it once the pan of water is already boiling in readiness for the very sweetest asparagus you can get.

Asparagus takes three years to reach a point where it is mature enough to be able to cut regularly, so the sooner you get your bed planted the sooner you can enjoy it. Don't put it off - my father never planted a bed at his previous house because he thought he wouldn't be living there long enough to get to harvest it, in the end he was there for over twenty years! In any case, an asparagus bed must add to the value of your property so what have you got to lose? You don't have to have a large space - my current bed has ten crowns in a space four feet by two feet. That's squeezing it in a bit but it seems to thrive and we have some delicious meals at a time of year when there is very little else to eat from the garden. Apart from a little weeding, and the application of some manure or garden compost once a year, they are basically maintenance free, and will remain productive for ten years or more. Add to that the fact that it's a delicious superfood with a whole range of health benefits - see http://www.british-asparagus.co.uk/superfood.php - the only real drawback is that it makes your wee go green and stinky!


As an aside my latest business website can be found at http://www.c-ca.co.uk/ . This has no relevance to gardening but by linking to it here it helps to get it indexed on google. I hope you will forgive my self-indulgence, please feel free to have a look anyway, you might find it interesting!