I wrote in a 2014 post about the asparagus crowns that I had prepped beds for and planted. Before the winter of the first season, I covered them up with an extra layer of compost, and then put large bags of soil and peat moss over them to help protect the beds from below-freezing temperatures. It was a very cold, long winter, and I had my concerns about these guys in their new homes.
By late April, the first signs of life were appearing in the asparagus beds. Tiny little shoots.
Spring 2014. Decided to try growing asparagus, which is something I’ve had my eye on for years. I suppose I could have tried it in a giant container before I had my own earth to plant in… but that doesn’t seem like the right approach for a longterm perennial. Asparagus grow as bundles of roots which send new shoots up every spring. If cared for, supposedly they can thrive for decades. So, off to YouTube I went in search of some advice from seasoned asparagus growers, which it turns out are in short supply in my neighborhood.
I soaked each crown in advance of planting. Each is a bundle of roots growing out from a single whitish bud, which is really a pre-asparagus shoot. I ordered 10 crowns, five for each side. You can see one of the root buds forming little white shoot, somewhere around the middle of my index finger in this photo.
