Emerging

The asparagus is popping up. Happy days.

I created the asparagus bed last winter, filled it with layers of soil and manure, then planted 16 crowns a year ago. They all sprouted in the spring and I watched them grow high with feathery fronds, then die down in autumn.

Over winter I fed them seaweed, manure and composted chook-run haylage; watered them well…and hey presto!

I shall eat just a couple of handfuls of spears this year, leaving the plants to grow bigger for spring/summer 2022 when I’ll get stuck into a proper harvest. The bed should give me 20 years of crops as long as I carry on looking after it.

It’s quite a commitment to have an asparagus bed