Asparagus spears

Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) is a tough, rewarding, long term vegetable that once established will give many years of delicious, nutritious spears. A perennial plant, it is a member of the lily family (Liliaceae) and has been grown and eaten for more than 2,000 years. If you haven’t ever tried growing asparagus, you probably should, and now is a good time to plant it.

Preparation
The key to really good production is soil preparation and as asparagus can go on producing for twenty years it is worth doing it properly. A friend who grew asparagus for more than 50 years said that her best crop came from the bed she planted over the burial site of her favourite horse! Choose a site with open friable soil and good drainage in a sunny position. If the soil is too heavy then establish mounds or a raised bed. Add a borrow load of manure and compost to every 2 square metres of soil and sprinkle several handfuls of dolomite over the top. Asparagus likes a ph of about 7. Dig the soil well and leave to sit for a few weeks. Remove any weeds as asparagus does not like competition.

Asparagus crown

Asparagus seedlings

Seed or Crowns?
Asparagus can be grown by planting seed or by purchasing and planting crowns. Seed germinates fairly readily but it can take from 2-4 weeks before the seedlings appear and I have found the best way to grow it from seed is to plant into large tree tubes. I fill these with potting mix except for the last two centimetres, which I make up with seed raising mix. Soak the seed in warm water overnight, water the pots well and plant two or three seeds into each pot, water again. Line a polystyrene box with plastic sheet and fill the bottom with about 3 cm of river sand. Moisten the sand. Stand the pots in the sand and move the whole box into a position out of direct sunlight. Keep the sand moist and the pots will stay moist by drawing water from the sand. Once the seeds germinate, remove extra seedlings so that only one remains. Leave these seedlings to grow, produce ferns and then die back.
Crowns are generally purchased in winter and spring and planted out straight away.

Timing
The time to plant seeds, seedlings and crowns depends on your climate. Asparagus spears are frost sensitive but it is otherwise a very adaptable vegetable and is grown from cool temperate regions to the sub-tropics. It is also grown in the tropics, but yields are not as prolific and plants do not last as long. Plant seed from late September to November in cool regions with frosts, from March to September in frost-free temperate and sub-tropical regions and May to July in the tropics. Transplant seedlings and plant out crowns in mid spring in frosty regions, from late autumn to mid spring in frost-free temperate and sub-tropical regions and in autumn and early winter in the tropics.

Purple asparagus

Asparagus flowers

Planting
A single row of asparagus generally results in a longer and more prolific crop because there is less over-crowding. So dig a trench, about 20 cm deep and 30 cm wide, into the already prepared bed and plant the crowns or seedlings 40 cm apart. Extra rows need to be 120 cm apart. For crowns, make small mounds in the trench and spread the roots over the mound so the roots are at an angle of about 45 degrees. Plant seedlings straight into the trench. Back fill with a mixture of soil and compost so there is about 8 cm of soil over the crown, but the trench is still about 10 cm deep. Water well and mulch lightly with pea straw or sugarcane mulch. Mulching can delay the appearance of spears by keeping the soil cooler, but will extend the harvest at the other end of the season. The delay in appearance is a good thing in frosty areas because the early spears are less likely to be damaged by frost.

Ongoing care
Do not harvest any spears in the first year after planting, just allow the spears to grow and ferns to develop, flower and set seed. This means that all the nutrients go back to the roots to keep them strong and help the plants to establish. Ferns can reach a height of 1.5 metres so might need some protection from wind. Every year when the spears start to appear, top dress with blood and bone and protect from snails and slugs. Remove weeds and keep well watered to encourage strong root growth. Asparagus plants are dioecious, which means there are male and female plants. Female plants will produce red fruit in autumn and these fruit should be removed when they appear (unless you want to collect seed) or you may have hundreds of seedlings to weed out later in the year. Some growers advocate removing female plants, believing that they are less prolific. In reality the spears from female plants tend to be thicker but less prolific while male spears are thinner, sometimes too thin, but more prolific. In late autumn the ferns will turn brown and should be cut back to a few centimetres above the soil. Top dress the bed with well rotted manure and mulch with a thick layer of pea straw to keep weed growth to a minimum. My sister, who grows a lot of asparagus, lets the chooks in to fertilize and scratch amongst the plants once the ferns have been removed and only mulches later in the year. She also grows other vegetables, like tomatoes, in rows beside the asparagus. The compost and manure added to the tomatoes helps to feed the nearby asparagus.

Cut just below the soil surface

Harvesting
In the second year after planting, spears will begin to appear in late winter and early spring and continue right through spring into early summer. The idea now is to harvest as many as you can, but leave enough to grow into ferns and replenish the rootstock so that you have strong healthy growth the following year. Some growers only harvest the thicker spears, leaving the thinner ones to grow ferns, these are sometimes called mother ferns. Others harvest all spears for six weeks to two months, and then start leaving some to grow ferns and after about three months let all grow into ferns.
In the third or fourth year after planting out, the asparagus will have reached its maximum yield and if properly maintained will continue to produce for another ten to fifteen years. After this, yields will start to decline.
In tropical regions, you can start harvesting in mid-June and continue through to the end of August. The lack of cold to induce winter dormancy means that plants don’t last as long as those grown in more temperate regions, although drought induced dormancy in autumn can sometimes work as a substitute.

Cutting
When harvesting spears, use a sharp knife and cut the spear when it is about 20 cm long, a couple of centimeters below the surface of the soil. During the height of the season, spears grow much more quickly and in very warm humid conditions can grow more than 2 cm in an hour!

Nutrients
Asparagus is a nutritional powerhouse containing many of the B vitamins as well as vitamin C and other anti-oxidants, potassium, and small amounts of iron. Fresh spears can be eaten straight from the garden or cooked briefly by baking, boiling, steaming, frying or even barbecuing. Finally, if you are one of about 60% of people who’s urine smells funny after eating asparagus, you might like to know that it comes from a chemical called asparagusic acid which metabolises with other chemicals in your body to produce the characteristic smell.

A purple asparagus spear

Varieties available
Green
‘Mary Washington’ is the most common cultivar of asparagus, in both seed, seedlings and crowns. It is high yielding with green spears and rust resistance.
‘Conovar’s Collossal’ is a very old cultivar with thick dark green shoots. Only available in seed.
‘Fat bastard’ an F1 male hybrid with fatter than normal spears. Rust resistant.
UC157 F1 hybrid This green cultivar is the best for tropical regions. Only available as seed.

Purple
Most of the purple cultivars sold in Australia for home gardeners are just called Purple, or sometimes Sweet Purple or Purple Passion.
The purple colour comes from anthocyanin pigment in the stem. Purple asparagus has a high sugar content, so has a mild, sweet taste.

White
White asparagus is just green asparagus grown without light. This can either be achieved by continually mounding soil up around the spear so that it doesn’t break the surface of the soil. Alternativley it can be grown in a polytunnel covered in black plastic to exclude all light. White asparagus is regarded as a delicacy and can be very expensive to buy but I think green and purple asparagus taste much better and doubt that white asparagus is worth the extra effort.

Contacts
For extra information and great recipes go to the  Australian Asparagus Council website

Crowns can be purchased from your local nursery in winter and early spring.

Mail order seedlings and seeds can be ordered from
Diggers, PO Box 300, Dromana, Vic, 3936. www.diggers.com.au
Green Harvest, PO Box 92, Maleny Qld 4552 www.greenharvest.com.au
Four Season’s Herbs, PO Box 110, Exeter, Tas. 7275.www.fourseasonsherbs.com.au

Seeds can be ordered from
New Gippsland Seeds and Bulbs, PO Box 1, Silvan, Vic, 3795 www.newgipps.com.au
Edens Seeds, M.S. 905, Lower Beechmont, 4211 www.edenseeds.com.au
The Lost Seed, PO Box 321, Sheffield, Tas. 7306.  www.thelostseed.com.au

French Breakfast radish

This bite sized treat is one of the easiest of all vegetables to grow and my favourite radish. Mild flavoured ‘French Breakfast’ radish (Raphanus sativus) was first introduced in Paris in 1879. The market porters in Paris used to eat these radishes with butter and salt as a mid-morning treat, hence French Breakfast. Sow seed into any reasonable garden soil in full sun to semi-shade, keep moist and thin to 5cm spacings once they have a few leaves. Add the thinned leaves to salad. Bubls can be harvested after 4-6 weeks and if you want to make sure you have them on hand when ever you feel like one, then sow new seed every three weeks. These mildly spicey radishes make a delicious snack on their own, or dunked in a dip, or emulate the French porter and cut in half, spread with butter and sprinkle with salt, yum! They are also, of course, delicious in salads or used as a garnish on a range of dishes. Young and older leaves also make a slightly spicey salad leaf.

If you want to save seed, then look for the best shaped and coloured bulbs and leave them to produce flower heads. They will grow quite tall so may need to be staked to stop them from falling over. Once in flower, like other plants in this family, they will be swarming with beneficial insects. After pollination, the green seed pods that form can be harvested and used raw in salad or pickled and used as a garnish, but make sure you leave enough to save the dried seed. If you want to collect seed that will grow true to type, then only grow and flower one variety at a time. Seed remains viable for about 5 years.

Bright red rhubarb stems

If you are an extra in a movie, providing background audience noise, you are supposed to murmur rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb. I don’t know where this idea originated or why rhubarb (why not cabbage, cabbage, cabbage for example!). Sometimes ‘peas and carrots’ are substituted but I do know that in Asterix the crowd always murmurs rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb.

Right now in gardens in Southern Australia the rhubarb clumps are thriving and many families are harvesting big bunches of stems and turning them into stewed fruit, crumbles and cakes. I have just found a new rhubarb cake recipe, it came from my sister via her friend’s grandmother and it is delicious (see the end of the article for the recipe). So, although now is not the time to plant rhubarb it is the time to harvest it and eat it. If you don’t have any, check our your neighbours’ gardens and later in the year (late winter) see if they will divide their clump and give you a piece.
Instructions for planting, growing and harvesting follow.

Delicious, old-fashioned rhubarb, Rheum x cultorum, is making a comeback in the garden and on the menu. While its stems are used in mainly sweet but also savory dishes, botanically it is classed as a vegetable. Although in 1947 an American court declared that it was a fruit for the purposes of taxation. The Greeks saw it as food for barbarians while the Chinese revered it for its medicinal uses. During the 1600s in England it was worth more than double the price of opium.
Seed or crowns Rhubarb can be grown from crowns or seed, but seed grown plants are very variable in colour and size, so for home gardeners it is really best to purchase a crown or potted plant with good stem colour. Plant crowns or divided clumps from late winter to early spring and harvest 12-18 months later. Seed to harvest is 3 years.There are named varieties of rhubarb with different varieties in different states, they include ‘Victoria’, ‘Sydney Crimson’, ‘Wandin Red’, ‘Silvan Giant’ and ‘Ever Red’. Alternatively, if you are lucky you may have a friend or neighbour with a good sized plant they are willing to divide. This way you will know you are getting a plant with good flavour and colour.

Young rhubarb plants grown from seed.

A vigorously growing clump of bright red rhubarb

Position and planting Rhubarb grows best in cool and temperate regions with good rainfall. It can be grown in the sub-tropics in cooler, elevated regions but is really not suitable for the coastal sub-tropics or the tropics. Rhubarb needs good drainage, as it doesn’t like to be very wet, but equally it needs plenty of water in hot dry weather. It likes sun, but I’ve found it does best in my temperate garden where it gets morning sun and afternoon shade. Rhubarb plants prefer a slightly acid soil (5.5-6.5) and are heavy feeders so before planting, dig compost, manure and blood and bone into the soil, water well and leave for a week or so. Plant crowns or young plants about 90 cm apart, from May to October. The average family will need only one or two plants. Just cover crowns with a thin layer of soil and firmly press them into place. Water in well and mulch with compost, lucerne or pea straw. Keep mulch away from the actual crown to discourage rot.
Growing and harvesting Once a month during the growing season, water with seaweed extract and some liquid fish emulsion; this encourages stem formation. It is almost impossible to over-feed rhubarb. Cut out any flower stems that develop and pick stems very lightly in the first year. Never harvest more than half the clump at any one time, removing the outside stems first. To pick, hold the stalk near the base and pull out from the plant. This makes sure that the whole stem comes away and doesn’t leave a stump, which could cause rotting as it breaks down. Remove the leaves from the stalks. These leaves are poisonous (very high in oxalic acid), so don’t eat or feed them to poultry or other stock, but they are safe to add to the compost.
Dividing clumps Dig up and divide clumps every 4-5 years, preferably in winter. Use a fork or spade and dig the whole clump from the soil. Shake off excess dirt and with a knife or sharp spade divide the clump into large pieces, each with two or three growing points and good roots. Replant into well-prepared soil, in a different position from the original.

Green-stemmed rhubarb tastes the same as red-stemmed.

Stem colour Stem colour is very variable, even from named varieties. The reddest colours are produced during cold weather, the optimum being 10°C. Temperatures above 25°C slow growth and suppress reddening of the stalks. Even with temperature variability, if you have green-stemmed rhubarb, you won’t be able to make it red. Green rhubarb can still be very flavoursome, but if you want red rhubarb you will need to buy a new plant.
Pests and diseases Rhubarb does not have many pest or disease problems in cool and temperate regions. Keep an eye out for aphids, grubs, slugs and snails. Plants may occasionally be affected by downy mildew, rust and leaf spot. These can be prevented by watering only in the morning and at ground level, by removing affected parts, and spraying with an organic fungicide. In warmer, more humid regions crown rot can be a problem. This causes the whole plant to collapse. Really good drainage is essential. Remove and dispose of affected plants (not in the compost). Replant into a new position.
Use Rhubarb stems are used mainly in sweet dishes. I love it simply stewed with sugar and a little nutmeg. But it is also made into jams, jellies, sauces and pie filling. It is rich in potassium, calcium and vitamins A, C and K. In Poland it is added, with spices, to potatoes, while Afghans add it to spinach and in Italy, it is distilled to make the low-alcohol drink, rabarbaro.

Remove the flower stems to encourage new stem growth

Win’s rhubarb cake
2 eggs
50gms butter (melted)
250 to 350gms of brown sugar (depends how sweet you want it!)
2 full cups self raising flour
250ml of plain yoghurt or sour cream
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
500gms of roughly chopped raw rhubarb stems ( do not use pre-cooked rhubarb)

Grease a round, square or loaf tin, line the base with baking paper.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly with wooden spoon (it is hard work as it is quite a thick mixture) – add the rhubarb to the mix last and stir through.
Put mix into greased tin
Bake in moderate oven for approximately 1 hour (check after 30mins or so and turn it around in the oven) or until it springs back when touched and browned off on top. You can sprinkle more cinnamon on the top while it is cooling if you wish.

This is a moist consistency, slightly sharp and not too sweet cake. Eat on its own or serve with cream, ice cream, custard ..
Store in the refrigerator as it has yoghurt/sour cream in it.

Colourful heirloom carrots

The early Romans grew purple and white carrots, but it is believed that the first purple carrots came from Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern Iran. Purple, white and yellow carrots were imported to southern Europe in the 14th century and were widely grown in Europe into the 17^th Century. Our familiar orange carrots only appeared in 16^th century Holland when patriotic Dutch growers used seed from purple carrots and yellow Turkish carrots to produce orange roots, reflecting the colour of the ruling House of Orange. Over the ensuing centuries, orange carrots came to dominate and carrots of other colours were only preserved by growers in remote regions of the world. Purple and white carrots  still grow wild in Afghanistan where they are used by some tribesmen to produce a strong alcoholic beverage.

Carrots are biennials that grow with the typically deeply divided bright green leaves in a dense clump with one long plump ‘carrot’ root to each clump. The edible roots have vibrant orange, red, yellow, white or purple skins, some with bands of orange, yellow and purple flesh in the centre. The flavour is sweet and spicy and they are all great for salad, juicing and roasting. The root colour comes from pigments in the roots that have known health-giving properties. Orange and yellow roots contain beta-carotene, red roots contain lycopene and purple, anthocyanins which act as anti-oxidants to protect the body. In the second year, if the carrots are not harvested, then strong upright leafy flower stems will grow from the centre of the clump.
The flowers of purple carrot varieties are typically rose-pink to lavender while orange carrots have white flowers. They all occur in umbrella-like flower heads in late summer and can make a delightful addition to the flower garden as well as attracting beneficial insects. All carrots like a sunny position and light well-drained soils without lumps or stones that might cause the roots to split. Add compost and well-rotted manure before planting, and water regularly.

Carrot seedlings planted in rows about 20cm apart

Healthy heirloom carrot plants

Grow carrots from seeds sown directly into the soil from September to February in rows 20 cm apart. Seed can take a while to germinate so cover with some shade cloth to stop them from drying out. Thin seedlings so that there is about 10 cm between each plant. Start harvesting young carrots after about two months. Heirloom purple, yellow, red and white as well as orange varieties of carrots can be purchased from Diggers Seeds , Green Harvest and The Lost Seed . Heirloom vegetables are often easier to grow, more robust and better yielding making them perfect for the home gardener. Some of the purple varieties that are available from other sources are F1 hybrids which means you won’t be able to collect viable seed to sow the following year. Look for heirloom carrots like: Purple Dragon, White Belgian, St Valery, Western Red, Scarlet Nantes and Mini Round. This last is perfect if you have difficult soils (lumpy and not so well drained) or if you want to grow in a pot. For everything else that you ever wanted to know about carrots,  go to  the World Carrot Museum website.

Garlic 'New Zealand Purple' is a more cold tolerant variety

Now is the time to plant garlic. Don’ t wait until the shortest day as this is generally too late. Anytime from now until the end of May is fine.
I am planting some early garlic now, and in another month some of my home-grown from last year and a month after that some more. I want to make sure that I have my own fresh garlic available all year round.

Why grow your own?
— We are all used to the idea that tomatoes eaten straight from the garden taste so much better than the supermarket variety. Well the same is true for garlic.
— Garlic is easy to grow and takes up very little space.
— All imported garlic is sprayed with methyl bromide when it comes into Australia, not only does methyl bromide deplete ozone, but it is also harmful to humans. As well as this, much of our imported garlic comes from China where pesticides are routinely used, and only 5% of vegetables imported from China are checked for chemical residue.

Preparation
Choose a spot that gets plenty of sun and prepare the soil by adding well-rotted manure and some blood and bone and compost. Garlic hates growing in soggy soil, so make sure the soil is well-drained. If the drainage is not good then create a raised mound and plant the cloves into this.

Some of the garlic bulb varieties I am planting

Which garlic?
Most garlic that you find in supermarkets has also been sprayed with sprout inhibitors so that they don’t sprout during storage. This means that they sprout at the wrong time of the year (usually spring) when it is too late to plant them. So buy organic garlic from you local green grocer or buy it from a reputable seed supplier. This year both Diggers and Green Harvest are selling a good range of organic garlic. Garlic does best in the southern states. Like onions, garlic bulbs begin to swell as day length increases, this means that many garlic varieties are not suitable for warmer regions like Northern NSW and Queensland. One day length neutral variety that does well in these regions is Glenn large or Southern Glenn.
Most varieties fall into two groups, hard neck or soft neck. The hard neck varieties have a central stem that produces a flower head. This flower head contains bulbils, not flowers. Hard neck types have larger, but fewer, cloves per head, are easier to peel but don’t keep for as long (about 4 months) as soft neck types. Soft neck types do not produce a flower stem and have smaller but more numerous cloves. Bulbs keep for about seven months.

I use a 'dibber' to make the hole for the garlic clove.

Plant the clove pointy end up.

Plant garlic well below the surface of the soil

Planting
Make holes in the soil about 15cm apart. I like to use the dibber that I use to plant bulbs, but your finger or a small trowel will do. Break the bulb into the individual cloves, do not remove the skin from the clove, and plant with the pointy end up so that the top of the clove is the length of the clove under the soil. Cover with dirt and water well, but don’t water again until the cloves have started growing otherwise they may rot in the soil. When the green leaves are well above the soil, mulch with pea straw, lucerne hay or sugar cane mulch.

Now sit back and let them grow, just checking occasionally to make sure they are growing strongly.
I will write again in a few months to tell you about what happens next. If you want to know more about garlic, how to cook with it and it’s fascinating history as well as other Allium plants like onions, shallots and leeks you could purchase my book Garlic and friends from the shop.

The following recipe, one of my favourites, comes from Garlic and friends

Baked Chicken with Forty Garlic Cloves

I large fresh chicken
salt and freshly ground black pepper
small bunch of herbs — lemon thyme, parsley, bay leaf, sage and French tarragon
40 unpeeled cloves of garlic
half a cup of olive oil
I cup of flour mixed to a thick paste with a quarter cup of water
crusty fresh bread

Remove the giblets, neck and any excess fat from the chicken. Rub the salt and pepper on the inside and outside. Place the bunch of herbs and four cloves of garlic inside the chicken. Into a casserole dish just big enough to hold the chicken, pour the oil and spread the rest of the garlic cloves evenly ove the bottom. Gently heat the oil and then put the chicken into the dish, turning it so that it is coated with oil. Put the lid on the casserole dish and seal it to the base with the flour and water mixture.
Place in a pre-heated, moderate oven and cook for one and a half hours. Remove from the oven and open the dish by breaking the crust. Carve the chicken and serve with the juices, the baked cloves of garlic and some crusty bread. The soft, sweet flesh of the garlic cloves is simply eaten by squeezing it out of the skin. It has a delicious nutty flavour.

Serves 4

Hard neck garlic 'Mammoth Purple' has large succulent cloves