How to grow Asparagus

* For Asparagus growing you’ll truly need a real garden bed. You'll need to grow it nice and deep; preferably raised if you have wet soils in winter; at least 20 cm above the soil level, 30 cm is even better.

* Deep friable soil: Mix soil, loam with lots of compost; add some manure (animal excrement) or sheep pellets; dose with a good lot of lime: Asparagus likes a high pH (around 7 or even more)

* Dig it all deep (at least 30 cm deep – or more if poss), so that the roots can go wandering down and side-ways with ease.

* Planted my new plants with the roots splayed in all directions of the compass – (star-shaped). About 10 cm deep; rows about 50 cm apart and the plants are spaced around 40 cm in the rows.

* Covered with friable soil that will warm up in spring, waking the plants and starting their growth. Don’t let the plants dry out in winter, keep them moist but not soaking wet!!

* Had good growth of ferns – let them go. They even produced heaps of bright red berries!! And the weeds tried to establish themselves in-between the asparagus plants, but I more-or-less kept on top of them.

* Mid-winter stuff to do: Get rid of all the last weeds (as much as you can); I also will cut off the old, brown fern-fronds and take them off the bed, trying not to spill too many red berries

* Once bed is cleared: lime it a bit; then top up with a fresh layer of organic compost – nice dark composty stuff. They also like some animal manure (I got the Halswell Quarry sheep well-trained!) and even some salty (unwashed) seaweed if you can find it somewhere. Just lay that over the top and in spring the spears will burst through the compostables…