Sparrow Grass

This Long-lived Perennial Needs Plenty Of Room In The Garden So You Can Spot The Emerging Shoots In Spring

- Jennifer Stackhouse

Each spring, delicious spears of asparagus appear in my garden — but it’s a mixed blessing. Unfortunately, the previous gardener ignored the first rule of asparagus planting: give them a dedicated bed. As a result, they’re growing in a garden bed, fighting for space and attention between a large clump of acanthus and garden perennials.

Every year I resolve to clear out the other plants and every year I forget so the annual spot-the-asparagus hunt goes on.

The reason for the dedicated bed is to give the asparagus, which is a very longlived crop, all the space and nutrients it needs to flourish — as well as help you easily spot the emerging spears.

One thing I’ve discovered however is that even quite tall spears (30cm-plus) are tasty and tender and worth picking, which is good news as it’s easy to miss the first fresh shoots.

The shoots are best harvested at 10–20cm in length, however, so keep a close watch on the bed in late winter and early spring. Unharvested shoots quickly become woody and unpalatable.

They mature into tall, slender stems up to 1.5m high with ferny green leaves. In summer they may produce yellow flowers followed by berries, which contain seeds.

Asparagus has separate male and female plants (berries indicate a female) but male plants are preferred as their stems are usually thicker and tastier.

PROPAGATION & VARIETIES

There are many ways to start off an asparagus patch including planting crowns (dormant roots), sowing seeds or even simply buying and planting small potted plants.

While seed is enticing as it is cheap, seed-grown asparagus takes many years to reach a productive size and the plants can be either male or female. Most of the plants sold as crowns or potted plants are male.