De-mystifying Asparagus

Asparagus is so tasty, but also a little intimidating... that is, if you're trying to grow it.  We asked gardener and guest blogger Christy Wilhelmi, founder of Gardenerd.com, to share the secrets behind growing asparagus (commitment-phobes beware!):

When people visit my garden, I point to the overgrown patch of fern-like fronds in the back. The question is always the same.  “That’s asparagus?”  The truth is - that used to be asparagus.  Asparagus appears out of the ground in the form we’re used to seeing on our plates – a spear. If they don’t get harvested, they grow taller and the tips open up, sending out fern-like fronds.  Some of those fronds (the females) develop red berries. At the end of the season, the fronds get cut down and the process starts over again.  
Many people are intimidated by the 3-year wait between planting and first harvest.  Some can’t commit to a permanent location for this 20-year crop.  If I’d known how easy it really is, I’d have planted asparagus 16 years ago when I started gardening.  Delay no further, my friends.  Follow this simple 3-step process and begin your journey to home-grown asparagus today:

1)  Choose a sunny location where you don’t think you’ll want to grow anything else for about 15 – 20 years.  Just do it.  If you don’t think you’ll be in one place for 15-20 years, either resign yourself to the fact that someday someone else will be enjoying your asparagus (hey – it could add value to your property), or plant the crowns (crowns

are bare-root asparagus plants) in an 18” deep planter that you can take with you when you move.

2) Dig a trench 12 inches deep.  Throw in a couple inches of good quality compost and a little organic vegetable fertilizer.  Make a mound in the center of the trench, and drape the asparagus crowns over the mound.  Cover the tops of the crowns with 2 inches of soil.  Add more soil as the asparagus grows until the trench level is even with the soil surface.

3) Water but don’t harvest in your first year.  Be strong.  Cut back the tall, frond-like foliage early next spring and watch spears poke their little heads up for the second time.  Harvest only for 2 weeks in the second year – patience is a virtue - and let the rest go.  Cut back again the following spring and start enjoying your home-grown asparagus as they grow.  Harvest spears 1½ inches below the soil surface with pruning shears or a sharp knife.
Olive oil, salt, pepper, knife, fork – yum!