|
IN THE GARDEN WITH THE WEEVIL - Asparagus |
|
|
|
Monday, 25 February 2008 |
De la pointe au talon, tout est bon, pousser comme un asperge.
And an asperge can pousse up to 15cm a day!
N.B. ‘Une asperge’ is a tall thin person in French slang, and asparagus otherwise. ‘Asparagus’ in French is the pot plant variety with such splendid ferns.
If you have space and patience asparagus is a very good thing to grow – all that green stuff starting (I’ve seen it as early as the end of February here in the Sud-Ouest) in early spring and going on for 6-8 weeks as it is cut and cut again. Some say that they never tire of the taste, but personally I feel that I’ve had enough of it after a few weeks.
Louis XIV enjoyed asparagus even earlier in January. His head gardener, Jean de la Quintine managed this with glass bell cloches and a massive amount of hot horses’ dos to keep it warm. An urchin was employed full time for all this shit shovelling.
Asparagus comes from the seaside. It likes a mild, moist summer and a
winter cold enough to put it to sleep for half the year. The soil
should have a pH of 6.5 so you may have to lime yours. Asparagus
flourishes in a light, well drained loam and will grow happily in sandy
soil if it has been well mucked and composted. Double digging is
recommended. It is important to weed and weed and weed out every last
bit of greenery and rootery. Left in, it will be too late to take them
out once they’re all intertwined with the asparagus roots.
Soil treatment: Asparagus likes rock phosphate, wood ash or some other
form of potash, though these shouldn’t be necessary if you have enough
compost. Fishmeal is also beneficial. Use a heavy mulch on asparagus.
Seaweed is ideal as it feels it’s back at the beach. Failing this, any
organic material which is non acid will reduce water evaporation. Don’t
hoe too rigourously or vigorously for that matter, as the roots will
suffer. Another reason to give it a good mulching to keep the weeds at
bay. Soil has to be demounded in the autumn and mulched in the spring
should you like your asparagus blanched. Usually an asparagus bed is
4ft wide to allow for three rows of plants, each one foot apart in rows
15 inches apart. Build the bed up 6 foot higer than the surrounding
garden to assist drainage. Seed can be sown in drills half an inch
deep. The F1 seeds are very expensive (E4 for 30) but are preferable.
Treat them royally, eg one per pot if potting before planting out. Thin
them later. No crop should be taken in the first 2 years. Impatient?
Forget sowing and purchase crowns. This of course means you’ll be
munching away sooner. Plant in April ASAP after taking delivery so that
they don’t dry out. Spread the crowns like octupi and don’t trim the
roots. New roots come normally from the crown rather than from exisitng
roots. These crowns are of the lily family and reproduce upwards. Order
them in advance. You can buy 3-year crowns, 2-year crowns or even
1-year ones. These yearlings come a good deal cheaper and still save
you some waiting time. They also transplant more easily than the older
ones but there’s a long wait all the same and they can be difficult to
find in France.
Pests and diseases: Use your fingers to pick off any beetles and kill
them. Do this early in the morning before they’re flying about. Rust
can also be a problem. Try rust-free varieties and failing that treat
with Bordeaux mixture (‘Bouillie Bordelaise’).
Asparagus can be blanched (earthed up so that the stems don’t turn green as with leeks etc.
Preserve asparagus by bottling of freezing it. Asparagus soup is
delicious and asparagus simply hot with butter or cold with vinaigrette
or mayonnaise.
By the way, there are asparagus cooking pots on the market. These are
very good as the spear tips remain out of the water, just cooking in
the steam so that they don’t go all mushy. Make sure that you buy a
tall one, ours is a little too short for the longer shoots, bit of a
shame really as you don’t want to cut off too much of the stems.
|
Downtime 
