Growing asparagus involves several decisions.

After lengthy discussion this past fall, we decided to remove the herb bed from the vegetable garden area and plant an asparagus bed there instead. I don’t use the herbs nearly as much as I thought I would, and some, like the lemon balm that grew to the size of a small shrub, I grew for a friend who no longer wants or needs it.

Growing Asparagus

Our grand scheme for that particular vegetable garden bed this spring is to dig up the herbs and move them into the perennial garden to use as decorative shrubs and herbs in another new garden bed we’re installing.  I’m afraid we’re going to lose some, since the soil is literally like cement there (it’s the area where we set up the cement mixer while pouring cement for the rocks along the walkway, and I think we spilled a little too much on that part of the garden during construction.)  Then we will transform the raised bed into an asparagus bed.

Asparagus is a bit intimidating for me to grow, mostly because no one I knew grew it in Floral Park.

As a perennial, I know you have to choose the site for it carefully, since a well-tended asparagus bed can last anywhere from 10 to 20 years, growing and producing edible spears of tasty fresh asparagus all the while.  I also know that it can get big, with the tall, frothy stems attaining heights of two to three feet.  One website said that people sometimes grow them as border plants in flower gardens because the foliage is so lovely.  That site promised that asparagus foliage turns from dark green to golden in the fall. That sounds like a beautiful sight to see!

Researching asparagus varieties is a bit confusing.  Neighbors in Virginia who grow asparagus told us to look for varieties or plants that produce spears in the first year; others, they said, would mean that the bed would need time to become established before producing anything worth snipping and cooking. Most people agree we can expect to get nothing from the asparagus bed the first year, and perhaps a meal or two the second year before it takes off.  Then I need to get my freezing or canning supplies ready to store the healthy harvest.

Asparagus need full sun, and according to most sources, they aren’t terribly fussy about soil pH.  I will still amend the garden bed with plenty of compost and a few new bags of soil before planting the asparagus.

We’re still going through all the gardening catalogs to choose our varieties to grow. There’s Jersey Knight, which all the catalogs seem to have, and Jersey Giant, and all sorts of “Jersey” asparagus. I wonder if New Jersey is a good asparagus growing place?  Or why they got that name in the first place?

There’s purple-tipped asparagus, purple asparagus, and the traditional green ones.  We’re going to go with traditional green asparagus, but I still cannot quite decide upon which variety. Some are only $15 for a package of crowns while the one recommended in my Master Gardener manual is around $30 for a comparable pack of crowns.  My inclination is to purchase both and conduct a test, but I probably won’t have the space or room to grow two types.

Have you grown asparagus? Which one did you choose?