Perennial Plant Profiles...

Asparagus officinalis, asparagus

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them? Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures. By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting. Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

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Genus Asparagus
Species officinalis
Common Name asparagus
Form herb
Habit clumping
Origin Europe
Light sun
Moisture dry to mesic 
Edible shoots

Asparagus grows to 100–150 centimetres tall, with stout stems with much-branched feathery foliage. The root system is adventitious and the root type is fasciculated.  It is usually dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants, but sometimes hermaphrodite flowers are found. The fruit is a small red berry 6–10 mm diameter, which is mildly poisonous to humans.  Large quantities of the shoots can irritate the kidneys.

Young shoots are best raw or steamed. Considered a gourmet food, the shoots are harvested in the spring, as the shoot quickly turn woody.  Male plants produce the best shoots. Over-harvesting the plant weakens it in the following year. The shoots are a good source of protein and dietary fibre. Roasted seeds are a coffee substitute.  Asparagus can also be pickled and stored for several years.


Asparagus is pictured as an offering on an Egyptian frieze dating to 3000 BC. It was known in ancient Syria and Spain. Greeks and Romans ate it fresh when in season and dried the vegetable for use in winter; Romans would even freeze it high in the Alps, for the Feast of Epicurus. Emperor Augustus tossed off the "Asparagus Fleet" for hauling the vegetable, and coined the expression "faster than cooking asparagus" for quick action.

Since asparagus often originates in maritime habitats, it thrives in soils that are too saline for normal weeds to grow. A little salt was traditionally used to suppress weeds in beds intended for asparagus; this has the disadvantage that the soil cannot be used for anything else. 

Asparagus is a useful companion plant for tomatoes. The tomato plant repels the asparagus beetle, as do several other common companion plants of tomatoes. Meanwhile, asparagus may repel some harmful root nematodes that affect tomato plants.

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OUR FRIENDS AT PFAF HAVE AN AMAZING DATABASE OF SPECIES (UK BASED);

Asparagus officinalis