Asparagi
“To Everything, There is a Season”
By Raye Nilius, Grayson County Master Gardener
In 1959, Pete Seeger wrote the song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” The lyrics were taken from the Bible’s Book of Ecclesiastes and the song became a number one hit in 1965 when recorded by the Byrds. You may remember it as “To Everything There is a Season”. In 2001, the 1965 version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The lyrics embody a collection of profound wisdom that can be applied to many corridors you travel. If you are a gardener, the lyrics are gardening tips.
“A time to plant, a time to reap.”
Around 2016, I decided to plant Asparagus. It is one of my all-time favorite vegetables. The Latin name is Asparagus officinalis and it is thought to have originated from Europe, North Africa, and Asia where it grows wild along the riverbanks and sea shores.
Asparagus made its way to the New World around 1655 before we became the United States of America. While China is the largest producer worldwide, growing 7.8 million metric tons (2017), the asparagus we buy at the market likely comes from Mexico and Peru.
Asparagus is planted as crowns that closely resemble the miniature version of a cotton string mop. I started my Asparagi with six crowns of Mary Washington that I’d found at a big box store. We had a small kidney-shaped planting bed with three blueberry bushes and a tiny fig bush. I remember scooping out thick Blackland Prairie mud to first spread and then press the tentacles of the crowns into the soil. About a month later, spears appeared.
When the spears are not harvested, they grow into the above-ground form of the plant that sports feathery fern-like leaves and a round green stem. The plant leaves photosynthesize food for the underground crowns. Without the above-ground plant, the crowns die and no more spears exist.
Experts say that spears should not be harvested unless they are the diameter of a pencil. If your crown produces only one spear, allow it to grow into a plant so that more spears follow the next year. The first year, I left the spindly, green Mary Washington spears in the ground where they sprouted tiny branches and grew three feet tall with fern-like leaves that waved in the Texas wind.
Not long after, I saw an article about a pink/purple variety of asparagus. In a fever, I searched online and found two-year Purple Passion asparagus crowns available for purchase. I ordered 12 crowns and planted them quickly in our kidney-shaped garden bed.
The crowns grew well and in early spring, pink/purple spears shoved their way out of the soil like a submarine on an emergency blow. Their pink/purple color is derived from Anthocyanin, a pigment produced by the plant. They easily outcompeted Mary Washington’s delicate spears, grew longer (8-10”) and were sweeter than the green varieties. Purple asparagus produces more Vitamin C than green varieties. Asparagus is also rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and the amino acid Asparagine.
When you snap off a spear early in the spring and eat it right there in the yard, no questions asked, you will find that they are tender, sweet, toothsome niblets. We ate them like they were candy.
“A time to gain, a time to lose.”
For several springs we enjoyed the beefy Purple Passion spears. I noticed that there were more every year. As it thrives in the soil the asparagus plant produces more crowns next to the crowns they already have. You can dig up the crowns, separate them, and move them to expand your asparagus bed to enjoy even more spears. With the initial six Mary Washingtons and the twelve Purple Passion crowns, we got more spears than we could ever eat.
One fine day I decided to plant long beans in the kidney bed. We had to expand the bed to plant the beans because they grow best on a cattle panel that is bent into a U and supported by T posts. The bed was expanded from a kidney shape to a long oval, and drip lines were installed.
It was worth the effort because my two favorite vegetables now thrived alongside one another in the company of their friends the Blueberries and a growing Fig. It was a happy family there in the oval bed. We enjoyed spears in the spring and I picked handfuls of long beans every day all summer long. The blueberries thrived too and during wet years, so did the fig. But that wasn’t to last.
“A time to laugh, a time to weep.”
In time, the Asparagi grew thicker and thicker, willfully shading the beans with their overbearing feathery fronds. They grew 6-8 feet tall. The beans suffered without grace in their shade on that end of the panel.
One day my husband said, “Don’t bring any more spears in the house. I’m done.”
Eight years after the first crown’s tentacles were spread out and pressed into the mud, we stepped back and weighed the benefits and drawbacks of Long Beans versus Asparagus. A difficult choice was looming. Something had to be done.
The long beans could be counted on to produce all summer long. If allowed to dry on the vine, the beans inside the pod could be saved as seed for the next year. The leathery beans that were no good as snap beans could be shelled for their delectable beans and cooked with a bit of ham and a side of cornbread. They could be canned or frozen for later. Two thumbs up.
The Asparagi produced fat, succulent, pink/purple spears for about a month and a half in the spring. Then they rocketed to tall feathery fronds. The plants created new crowns shamelessly right before our eyes. It isn’t easily preserved by canning or freezing. They took up four times the size of the original bed. The rascals were crowding and shading the blueberries and the long beans. Two thumbs down.
“A time to build up, a time to break down.”
We waited until winter to dig up the crowns. When I pried out the first crown, I heard Billy Bob Thornton’s voice from Armageddon; “It’s the size of Texas, Mr. President.” No longer the miniature version of the cotton string mop, they were nearly as big as a full size string mop. It took a week of exhaustive digging to get them all out of the Blackland clay. We filled two Gorilla Carts with excavated crowns.
We shared the crowns among our gardening friends and family members who seemed genuinely happy to get them. When the crowns were out and gone, we tilled the ground, added compost, and installed another cattle panel for long beans. Now and then, two elusive crowns we had overlooked will shoot up a spear.
“To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
Gardening is a rotating carousel of choices and change throughout the year. Something new always pops up. Something else has to go. I hope that your carousel ride has been as eventful as mine, and just as enjoyable. As always, my friends, Happy Gardening!!!
Evicted Asparagus crowns ready for their new homes
A lone Purple Passion spear appeared after all (but one)
of the crowns were removed
Our first cattle panel for Long Beans, with Asparagus plants in the Background