Northland Alumni Site

One of the projects this Spring was planting an asparagus bed. We cleared an area and dug it out. Then laid out the asparagus “crowns” which are just a bunch of roots. We had about 50 of these. Then those got covered with some silty-soil from the creek, compost and cow manure. After a few days some very little and very thin asparagus heads started to come up. They look just like the asparagus that we eat, but they can’t be cut this year.         

After some of the crowns sprouted and came up a bit, the bed needs to be filled in more. We also set some posts and then put boards around the bed so it’s a more defined area and we could make it pretty deep. Here’s John digging one of the post-holes.   

Eventually when the bed is filled in, the asparagus has to be left alone. It turns into wispy fern-like stuff. We’ll leave it alone besides some weeding throughout the summer. In the fall the ferns will get cleared out, and the bed should be covered with leaves as we wait patiently for the spring. Next spring we’ll cut just a little bit, because the plants are still getting established and can’t handle a heavy harvest. But, by the third year we can take as much as we want. I know it will be worth the wait for fresh asparagus every day. Yum-Yum!