With a huge flooding problem by the creek that runs through our property, I took my grandpa’s advise and decided to grow asparagus! Unfortunately, it was more complicated than I was led to believe and I made more than a few visits to the farmers almanac and other gardening sites.

The asparagus that we eat are really just the shoots of the shrub-like plant. In their first year, you must allow the asparagus to grow into a small bush that will produce poisonous berries. The spring afterwards, you can harvest the shoots and eat them!

Following the advice on the box, my mom and I dug a trench that was just over 30 cm wide. Within the trench, we formed little mounds of soil also 30 cm apart where we placed the roots of the asparagus. The ground was mostly clay so we filled the trench with good, fertile soil so that the top of the roots were about 5 cm from the surface.

Update:

After a very long time, all 5 asparagus crowns sprouted! It was about a month after planting did I realize that I probably put too much soil on top of the roots. So, I skimmed some off and within a few weeks, we had 5 beautiful sprouts!

However, I realized that where we planted the asparagus has very little sun and although they are managing, the plants could be a lot larger if there was more sun.

They also had a tendency to flop so on afternoon, I just tied them gently to sticks with grass.

I’ve already learned so much and considering my history with plants, so far I’d say it has been pretty successful!