Asparagus and Memories of My Childhood

[OldGuy43]

During WWII (The big one. You heard of it. It was in all the papers. ) my family, like many others had a Victory Garden in the backyard. Years later the garden was gone, but the asparagus kept coming up. As a matter of fact, despite best efforts it threatened to take over the yard.

My idea is to plant asparagus in the back end of my property where the weeds reign supreme. Asparagus has to be better than weeds.

Comments?

punctuation and capitalization corrections only

 

[Smiles Jr.]

A few years after I got home from the military (1971) I started a 4 ft. x 8 ft. asparagus patch and it did very well. I planted the sprouts about 20" deep in well amended soil as I was instructed and that patch was a big producer for about 16 years. We moved to the country and I have not been successful growing asparagus since. We love the tender shoots each spring but we have had to buy our asparagus for many of the last 24 years. I've tried to establish asparagus beds several times but they only last a couple years then die off.

Oh yeah, asparagus is much better than weeds any day.

 

[wsmoak]

This reminds me that it's almost time to start my asparagus seeds! I'm hoping to get them going in the spring and hopefully figure out how to keep them alive. -Wendy

 

[lesa]

I highly recommend that anyone who enjoys asparagus- should plant some! For so many years, I thought, "gee I would like to start a bed, but it takes so long to mature." Obviously, had I planted the asparagus the first time I thought that- I would have been eating a lot of asparagus! My bed is about 4-5 years old now, and it is wonderful. The tender stems are ready before anything else in the garden. A real pleasure in the early spring. I don't think they will compete with your weeds, oldguy- but if you make a deep, well amended bed, you won't be sorry. Enjoy!

 

[cityfarmer]

We harvested our first meal of asparagus last spring when our asparagus patch was 3 years old. We only had a enough for one meal, but it was delicious! I can't wait until this spring.

 

[OldGuy43]

As I understand it than I want to sprout the asparagus indoors and plant it deep. Any other hints?

 

[lesa]

I haven't heard of sprouting it first. I have only planted the crowns. They really look like dried up roots. Deep is the key.

 

[Southern Gardener]

I highly recommend that anyone who enjoys asparagus- should plant some! For so many years, I thought, "gee I would like to start a bed, but it takes so long to mature." Obviously, had I planted the asparagus the first time I thought that- I would have been eating a lot of asparagus! My bed is about 4-5 years old now, and it is wonderful. The tender stems are ready before anything else in the garden. A real pleasure in the early spring. I don't think they will compete with your weeds, oldguy- but if you make a deep, well amended bed, you won't be sorry. Enjoy!

I agree Lesa! This spring will be my second year in the garden. I'm hoping I can harvest some - the plants did very well over the summer months. I always thought I couldn't grow asparagus.

 

[digitS']

Nothing much to say about the growing of asparagus; I've never had it in the garden.

Asparagus grows on its own along some of our rivers. For a number of years, I had a garden right above the Spokane river. The garden was so close that I could have cast a line from the edge of the garden, into the river during the spring run-off.

When the water dropped, the asparagus would grow. As I said, I would harvest it but that only lasted until I learned of the heavy metal contamination of the river banks from the old mines, upstream. The lead and such was so bad that the State Park Department brought sand and rock in by the truckload and spread it in places frequented by folks down there to swim. Lots of little kids now play in trucked in sand rather than what was deposited by the river. My wild asparagus harvesting has ended.

Victory gardens? My grandparents returned to Canada during WWII. Grandma planted her victory garden along the banks of the Fraser River. Grandpa died in 1953 and G'ma moved back to the states and lived there for a couple more years.

I visited the old place 15 years after they left. No one had lived there during all that time but her victory garden was still there. It may be there, yet. G'ma loved her flowers and planted them in a large "V" .

Steve

 

[NwMtGardener]

Oldguy, if i remember right, you are in a fairly dry area? I, like steve, have seen asparagus growing wild in wet areas, ditches and creekbanks, so i'm thinking you'll want to be sure and keep it well watered. You'll have to be even more patient if you're starting from seed, even when planting crowns as lesa mentioned, you want to wait a few years before harvesting, so i'm wondering if you'll want to wait a few extra years if you're starting from seed? BTW, i went both ways - got some crowns a few years ago, but also started a new bed from seed in 2011. I definitely feel like asparagus is well worth the effort though!!