Asparagus, Asparagus Everywhere!

When I was growing up asparagus always seemed to be a really fancy and exotic vegetable. Living in rural Western Australia we never saw fresh asparagus and it wasn't until my late teens that I actually ate fresh asparagus. My mum always had a tin of asparagus in the pantry and often put it in quiches. I was never a fan of the tinned variety but was quite quickly hooked on it fresh.

Before growing asparagus I always imagined it would be a difficult plant to grow as I didn't know of many people with their own asparagus patches- how wrong I was! It really doesn't need a lot of loving care, just some good compost, bit of straw and a deep water once or twice a week and with a bit of luck it should continue producing for 20 years! Some of mine has been in for 4 years and this year we have been getting a nice bunch every second day. Asparagus seems to grow from seed quite easily and has self seeded itself all through the compost heap which is next to the asparagus patch. They are popping up everywhere and Lyssie and I have been potting them for friends this week. When I say they are popping up everywhere, I mean everywhere. That is everywhere I have moved compost, in the corn, in the lettuce, pots of basil and even under the orange tree, all over the garden.

Some of the asparagus Lyssie has helped me pot- 2 year olds are such help in the garden, especially when they insist that they wear the gloves, use the spade and hold all the pots!

A baby asparagus popping up in some lettuces growing in an old laundry trough

A two year old asparagus plant under the orange tree (and a few weeds!)