Planting asparagus

Planting asparagus crowns is a very serious business. Unlike any other vegetable crop, asparagus is perennial and will be in the ground for more than 10 years. If the asparagus is going to do well and crop for all those years the ground needs to be prepared well. Asparagus loves free draining, sandy soil and we, like so many, have heavy clay soil. This makes soil preparation all the more important. Steve prepared the ground 12 years ago when he planted our first lot of asparagus and it did well.

Steve and I have very different approaches to everything we do in life. I like to get on with things and to feel as if I'm making progress. Steve, in contrast, is the sort of person who measures 3 or 4 times before starting anything, will never cut a corner and is unlikely to be happy at the end of any job because perfection is impossible to attain. He, therefore, is definitely the man you want when it comes to any DIY or gardening project that you want to stand the test of time. You just have to go away for a long time whilst he's getting on with it or risk becoming frustrated by lack of obvious progress.

It is for this reason that planting asparagus is unquestionably a job for Steve. The only problem being that the asparagus crowns arrived in the post on Friday and clearly stated plant IMMEDIATELY! Immediately is not in Steve's nature.

Over the course of the weekend, whilst planting potatoes, Steve started the preparation of the new asparagus bed, first rotavating it then digging out trenches. By the end of Sunday we had 3 trenches, heavily scattered with powdered rock samples (left over from Steve's years as a geologist). My only contribution to the planting was to go out today and buy a bag of sharp sand and some decent quality multipurpose compost. Then after work today Steve used the whole bag of sand, plus some gravel and a fair bit of the multipurpose compost to turn heavy clay into free draining, asparagus suitable soil.

He planted the crowns on top of mounds within free draining trenches, as is recommended in most books on the matter. Let's just hope the asparagus survived their temporary wait wrapped in damp kitchen towel and are now enjoying their lovely prepared bed.

New season veg

We spent the Easter weekend away but, whilst we enjoyed glorious sunshine, our plot received copious rain. This is perhaps the best possible situation - no regrets for being away when the weather is wet but great potential for the plants to get on and grow in the rain.

With Steve off work Tuesday and Wednesday it was time for some serious work on the allotment. Unfortunately, life has a habit of getting in the way of best laid plans and instead of rushing straight out to the plot we had to rush to the supermarket to get some food in. Still, I did manage to buy a large plastic trug for £3. Back home and with the shopping put away it was finally time to get out.

Back at the end of last summer a fellow plot holder had offered me some of her excess spring cabbages. I didn't really have space for them and I had never grown them before but I didn't say no and I found space for 6 plants. Over the winter the poor plants got badly eaten either by pigeons or slugs but they started to regrow as soon as the weather began to warm. They didn't, however, show much sign of hearting up. It was somewhat a surprise, therefore, to find the plants ready to harvest yesterday... only with splendid florets of white sprouting broccoli! Oh! If I'd known I'd have never bought the cauliflower in the supermarket that morning.

It was also something of a surprise to see the first spears of asparagus ready to harvest. Our asparagus bed is about 10 years old now and the spears have become quite spindly. I have decided to work towards replacing the bed and have ordered replacement crowns (should have been delivered in March and I'm wondering where they have got to!). The idea is to establish a new bed over the next two years and then discard the old one. The old one is looking a bit neglected and with the emergence of new spears Steve decided to give the whole bed some attention. First he cut off all the spears and gave the bed a good weeding.

Whilst he was doing this I took the girls off to their plot to plant 4 seed potatoes each. I had recently bought them some kid sized gardening tools and this was their first outing. I was pleased that the tools were strong enough for the job and didn't instantly break. Once the potatoes were planted I left the girls to play with their new tools. Part of the set had been a broom and my youngest took it upon herself to sweep the paths and car park. This obviously gave Steve inspiration because shortly after seeing her sweeping up moss that was growing on the car park he decided to scrape it up and spread it between the ridges of the asparagus bed. He also used potting compost as a top dressing over the crowns themselves. The girls approved of his efforts because he had created a rather attractive stripey bed. Hopefully it will do some good too.

So for tea that night we ate our first harvests of the new season - white sprouting broccoli and asparagus spears.