• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Home Garden Joy
  • Home
  • How to Garden
    • Garden Pests
    • Plant Diseases
    • Plant Profiles
    • Raised Bed Gardening
    • Seed Starting
    • Tools & Equipment
  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Herbs
  • About
    • Books & Classes
      • Herbalism Classes
      • Books for Christian Herbalists
      • Privacy Policy

Growing Asparagus in the Home Garden

April 24, 2012 by Jeanne

Growing asparagus in the home garden has been a fun learning experience for us.  I ordered asparagus “Jersey Knight” from the Burpee catalog – two-year-old crowns.  I paid a lot more for them, but the promise is that the more mature asparagus crowns mean I can harvest some asparagus spears next year instead of waiting two years or more.  At the rate my asparagus is growing, I’m wondering if it might not be sooner!

a picture of garden asparagus on a wooden table

Growing Asparagus in the Home Garden

I chose asparagus Jersey Knight for its promised early harvest and disease resistance. While asparagus is a pretty hardy perennial vegetable, it can be subject to rust and fusarium root rot.  Planting crowns purchased from a reputable nursery helps ensure disease-free rootstock.  Good cultivation practices also prevent problems.

Growing Conditions for Asparagus

Asparagus like a rich, sandy loam soil, which for most of us in Virginia is the exact opposite of what we have.  Most gardens around here are dealing with heavy clay to clay loam.  Our solution to this problem is of course the raised beds we installed in the vegetable garden.  We simply built the wooden raised beds and dumped in bags of topsoil, peat, compost (trucked in by a local company) and compost from the garden compost pile.  The result is a well-drained rich soil that’s not exactly sandy loam, but a compost-rich loam that most of the vegetables plants seem to like.

asparagus

 

asparagus

The crowns came right on time from Burpee and we kept them in a cool, dark spot in the garage until ready to plan.  We had to move all the herbs out of the herb bed first.  I decided to move the herbs into the flower garden and around the edge of the clearing.

We lost more soil from that raised bed than we bargained for when we dug up the herbs, so we lost another day while Hubby ran out to Lowe’s for replacement soil.  Several bags of soil later, we were ready to plant the crowns. We followed the directions carefully and spread out the roots, lining up the crowns to give the asparagus plenty of room. We just pulled up soil around the roots but left the crowns bare, and didn’t fill in more soil in the garden bed.  We began a process of watering them daily.

10 Days from Planting to Growth

Within about 10 days, a few signs of life appeared, and we cheered the first airy fronds. Then they began sprouting in earnest! It looks like a weird alien bed with the asparagus fronds waving about.

As of today, 22 of the 24 asparagus crowns are alive and producing foliage.  We added more soil once all of them appeared healthy, filling in the bed.  We also placed a soaker hose around the asparagus, making U-shaped pins to hold the hose in place from old wire coat hangers. (The frugal gardener’s answers to expensive landscape pins.)

We are a long time away from harvesting the asparagus, but so far, so good.  It’s fun to see them waving in the breeze and I can’t wait to watch their development!

More information on growing asparagus from the Virginia Cooperative Extension office.

 

 

Filed Under: Vegetable Gardening

Previous Post: « Virginia Wildflowers
Next Post: Growing Bearded Iris – Iris Germanica »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. ~Gardener on Sherlock Street

    April 25, 2012 at

    I just planted Jersey Knight asparagus but have to wait longer as I just got the roots. They looked nice though and are all in the ground. I like the wispy asparagus plants. Can’t wait to have some fresh asparagus some spring.

Primary Sidebar

Let’s Connect!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

As Seen in Porch

 As Seen in Porch

We were featured in Porch.com and answered reader's questions about indoor plants.

Explore All Gardening Articles

Latest Articles

  • Sunscald on Tomatoes: What It Is and How to Prevent It
  • Herbal Profile: Growing Calendula
  • Battling Anthracnose: A Cucumber Grower’s Guide to a Sneaky Fungal Foe

Herbalism Classes & Supplies

Goods Shop by Herbal Academy – botanically inspired products

Disclosure

Home Garden Joy participates in two affiliate programs: Amazon and The Herbal Academy. Home Garden Joy earns a commission from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate. As an Herbal Academy Associate, HGJ also earns a commission when you sign up for classes or purchase herbs or supplies from The Herbal Academy. Herbal information and recipes on this site are provided for educational purposes only.

Footer

a close up of a cucumber leaf with anthracnose

Battling Anthracnose: A Cucumber Grower’s Guide to a Sneaky Fungal Foe

If you’ve ever stepped into your garden and noticed strange brown spots or sunken blemishes on your cucumbers, you might be facing a common but troublesome fungal disease known as anthracnose. Caused by Colletotrichum orbiculare, anthracnose thrives in warm, humid conditions and can quickly spread across your crop if not addressed early. This year in…

Read More

cucumbers and tomatoes in harvest basket

How to Grow Cucumbers: A Complete Guide

Learn how to grow cucumbers in this complete guide. I’ve grown cucumbers my entire life, and I still marvel at the prices of them at the supermarket. I can only imagine that we’re all paying for the transportation, for cucumbers are some of the easiest vegetables to grow. In fact, you may find yourself muttering,…

Read More

small round eggplant

Growing Eggplant: A Guide for Gardeners

Growing eggplant (a small garden devoted to fresh, seasonal edibles) is relatively easy in zone 7, where I garden, but combating the bugs is another story. Growing epplant in pots, containers, raised beds, or garden soil is all possible if you are willing to go the extra mile to control its nemesis, the Colorado potato…

Read More

cherry tomatoes in various stages of ripeness

Volunteer Plants – Nature’s Unexpected Gifts

Volunteer plants are one of nature’s most delightful surprises. They spring up unbidden, often in places we didn’t expect—cracks in sidewalks, corners of compost piles, or nestled beside a stone foundation, like the vibrant coleus seedlings growing near my deck shown in these pictures. These botanical freeloaders aren’t weeds; they’re plants that have reseeded themselves…

Read More

  • Privacy Policy
  • About
  • Awards

Copyright © 2025 Home Garden Joy on the Foodie Pro Theme