I picked today also, and got at least as much as we can eat in one meal, maybe more. I will have more to pick tomorrow, then I guess I will try to cover them again until this next cold weather has passed. I only have a small bed and we have been picking a little for the last couple of weeks, but the higher temps really brought it up today.

Im super jealos! Asparagus is my favorite vegetable, tying with okra and fresh tomatoes. I think i will have to try my hand at planting some.

In the summer, i eat almost only vegetables, no meat. Right now i get most everything at the farmers market, sweet corn from Bixby, local grown tomatoes if i dont produce enough, local okra, etc.

Do you plant it in the fall for the next year? Does it take a dew years to establish?

I wish i had a big garden with everything in ot, i have the land to do it, i just would have to have a big fence because i have racoons, possum, armadillo, deer, rabbit, coyotem fox, moles..... You name it, i have it.

Maybe i can make some friends at spring fling who could teach me how to start a garden. I always had to help in the big garden as a kid. I remember the tilling, the making the rows, the planting seedsm the watering, etc. but i dont really believe that i could do it on my own.

But for now, i will start with advice on how and when to do the asparagus. Any help is much appreciated.

Emma

Emma, I only have a backyard garden and I waited for along time to plant asparagus because I couldn't decide where to put it. Grass is the enemy. I finally just made a 4x12 raised bed and I try to stop any grass that tries to get in.

Yes, it normally takes 3 years before you get a nice crop, but this is our third year and we cut quiet a bit in the 2nd year. I ordered plants from Simmons Plant Farm and they were very large. Once you plant, you just keep them watered, then in the Fall when they die back, you cut them off and mulch for the winter. I didn't even remove the mulch until I had spears coming through it this Spring.

As long as the spears are larger than a pencil, you can cut and eat. When you are no longer getting large ones, you let them all fern out and grow for the summer so they are strong enough for next years crop. We eat a lot of it raw, but I like it cooked lots of different ways also.

Dorothy (mulberryknob) is the 'real' asparagus grower and I bought asparagus from her last year for my freezer, and we ate fresh from our home grown patch.

Asparagus is really easy gardening if you can keep the grass out, because once planted, it will produce for years and years.

...and years and years. Our current patch is over 25 years old and going strong. Obviously since the plants last so long, you want to do any soil amending that is needed before you plant. That said, because our soil was not too dense, all we did was get rid of the grass--mostly fescue and johnsongrass with a bit of bermuda by using roundup the year before we planted. (If we had it to do over, we wouldn't use RU, but black plastic the summer before, then cardboard and mulch in the aisles and mulch over the rows)

I raised my own seed because it was cheaper considering how many plants I wanted. (We planted 6 100 ft rows originally, mostly of UC157 grown from seed. And of course we couldn't eat all that. It was originally our children's money project. They got to keep the proceeds if they would weed and pick.)

For years we've mulched heavily with sawdust, wood chips, shredded leaves and fertilized with woodashes because we have acid soil. If you are in the central or western part of the state you probably have nuetral to alkaline soil. The best time to plant is in the fall, with spring second best. You'll have to water a lot more if you try for spring and probably won't be much further ahead than if you wait till fall. We only watered ours the first summer. A heavy mulch has kept them going ever since on rainfall alone.
The plants will be small but don't be tempted to crowd them. Plant them no closer than 18" apart in rows 4 feet apart.
Carol told you how to pick them. I can't think of anything else. Oh except be sure not to put the crowns into the ground upside down. Someone did that a couple years ago and fortunately posted a pic so we could let them know. There are little buds where the spears will emerge on the "top" side of the crowns. If you can't see them, wash the crowns and they should be apparent. One other thing is that some directions say to dig a hole a foot deep, plant the small crowns in the bottom of it and fill it gradually over time. I hadn't read that when I planted and just planted my crowns a little deeper than they grew. With as much mulch as we've put on over the years the soil is deeper over the crowns than we started anyway. Planting in a trench in the fall with only a couple inches of dirt can lead to rot and freeze out in heavy soil as an acquaintance learned here a few years ago.

I'm so happy for you! This is one I look forward to. It will try my patience. lol