You Should Plant Artichokes and Asparagus Right Now.

When you think of expensive vegetables in the store, you know, really sexy vegetables that have a “season”, you usually think of perennial vegetables. Ironically, they are the coldest. Plant them once, sit back and wait for them to grow on their own, year after year.

Two of my favorite perennial vegetables are artichokes and asparagus, and they are very different. When I moved in, I remember that one of the perks was that the place came with an asparagus bed already set up. There was no sign of the bed, but I was promised that it would be there in the spring. And in March, tiny buds began to bloom, one after another, until I began to distribute bouquets of it to people passing by, I was so inundated with spears.

How to grow asparagus

Wandering through the Parisian markets, I became obsessed with the white asparagus, as thick as carrots, that lined the stalls. I already knew how white asparagus is made, I saw Martha explain it many years ago. It is blanched by pouring earth over the spears as they grow, completely blocking out the light. This gives white asparagus a more delicate flavor and ghostly appearance.

Asparagus can be grown from seed or crown. It’s not hard to start with seeds, but most people choose crowns because you won’t be able to harvest asparagus until the third year. Buying two- or three-year-old crowns, you will be harvesting next spring.

While it is technically possible to make white asparagus from any asparagus by blanching, there are French varieties that can be bought as seeds , but are difficult to find as crowns. Those you might consider starting on your own. There are also purple asparagus sprouts, and you don’t have to bury them in the dirt. Garden centers have a variety of varieties to choose from, and you can plant them all to ensure years of asparagus down the road.

In any case, now is the time to go to the garden center and buy some crowns because they will be gone in a few weeks.

To plant asparagus, you need to dig a long trench. At the 8-12 inch intersection, make a mound of earth, and then place a crown on it and spread the roots around it. Make rows a foot apart or more, then cover the crowns and make sure they are well mulched.

Every spring you will see how shoots appear, some thicker, some thin. Take only the thickest shoots, allowing the thin ones to develop into ferns. These asparagus ferns grow up to three to four feet tall and produce seeds for more asparagus. If your beds are under three, you should let all spears grow.

Asparagus grows incredibly fast, you have to monitor your garden every day to catch them all before they turn into a fern. But eating your own asparagus right out of bed is incredibly sweet. The taste is super fresh and bright.

The ferns will take up space, which is why many people leave asparagus in their garden. I read last year that tomatoes go well with them and so I tried this with great success. Asparagus season is coming to an end when you even plant tomatoes, and by planting together you prevent the asparagus beetle , which looks a lot like a ladybug, but definitely isn’t.

How to grow artichokes

My dream was to one day live in some place where I could grow a large number of artichokes so that I could always go and pick them. I dreamed of young artichokes and canned artichoke hearts. I’m shocked to say it’s absolutely everything I wanted and more.

Artichoke plants are a show stopper. They can grow even in winter, although they do not bear fruit at all. But with the arrival of spring, with a little fertilizer and care, they will begin to shake towards the sky. After a few years, you will find that your artichokes are five to six feet tall and take up a lot of space.

When they grow up, buds will appear at the top, and those buds will grow into artichokes. Each plant will produce one or two large artichokes and then start producing more and more smaller and smaller artichokes.

The key is to know when to pick them while the bud is still firm but fully grown, just before it starts to open. Cut them as low as you like at the stem (some people really like the smothering stem, I find it too woody) and bring them inside to steam.

As a rule, I pick the first four or five bushes and then leave the smallest bushes to bloom. The artichoke flower is one of the most magnificent sights on earth. When they open, fluffy dark purple fur is revealed before they fully bloom.

They are breathtaking, but more importantly, bees also love them. On any given day, you will find five, six, even 20 bees buzzing around each flower, collecting pollen. More charming, however, is that you will also find bee pollen drunk, passed out in your scented flowers. Every morning you can go out and see a whole string of bee stubs in the air, sleeping in your flowers.

Some people also collect flowers, and you can easily collect artichoke seeds from them, but I leave them for the bees.

Artichokes are best purchased as starters from a garden center or very early in February. Make sure you give them enough space, artichokes can easily reach six feet in diameter and reach eight feet in height. They don’t require any special planting instructions, just make a hole the size of a rootball and plant them, and remember they love mulch and need to be fertilized twice a year, fall and spring. Use fertilizer for blueberries and azaleas. In autumn, cut them to the ground and heavily mulch for the winter. Your artichoke will form young, and they can be transplanted as new plants to other places in your garden in the fall or winter.

Now is a great time to buy them and plant them in the ground, you have plenty of time to harvest them a little this year, but next year they will be magnificent kings of the garden space, perfect along the fence, creating a border that loves the sun, or as the centerpiece of your space.